Strategic airlift is an essential capability for the rapid global movement of cargo, particularly in crisis operations where timelines are short and cargo demands extreme. Despite the European Union's collective purchase of A400M aircraft, capability gaps remain due to the aircraft's limited ability to airlift heavy and outsized equipment. This study applies Knowledge-Based Engineering aircraft design tools in conjunction with Agent-Based Simulation techniques to evaluate a fleet's ability to move cargo rapidly across strategic distances in high-stakes operational scenarios. One focus of the study is on the often-overlooked constraint of cargo hold volume and its effects on a fleet's ability to transport cargo. The study found that this volume constraint can reduce airlift capacity by roughly 20% in scenarios with medium-density cargo. Further, through design space exploration, this study identifies key top-level aircraft requirements for a new airlifter to work effectively in the European fleet of airlifters. Analysis reveals that a next-generation aircraft requires a wide fuselage capable of double-file loading, an extended fuselage length of 39m, an increased payload capacity of 120 tons, and a cruise speed of Mach 0.8. Such a design could enhance the fleet performance and reduce fleet requirements by roughly 30%.

Training in realistic conditions is crucial for fighter pilots. During this training, a red air team is used to represent adversary threats. Currently, the red air team is made up of friendly aircraft that mimic the tactics of the expected adversaries. However, this method has its limitations, such as that these friendly aircraft do not correctly mimic the performance and detectable emissions of the real adversary aircraft. Furthermore, using real combat aircraft has other downsides. They require active fighters and pilots that require expensive training, and using real aircraft means that these expensive combat aircraft need to spend a lot of their service life filling the role of red air instead of flying real missions. As red air flying hours are not considered to be useful training for the pilots flying them, there is no need for using combat-ready aircraft that can carry real armament, nor for a pilot in the cockpit. Using real combat aircraft has other extensive costs attached to it and is unsustainable looking at its real intended purpose. Just to have a real combat aircraft in the red air fleet requires acquisition of the aircraft, taking it away from active service that it was designed for. It needs a (ground)crew to operate it. It also needs lots of maintenance, requiring mechanics, engineers, tools, hardware, and much more. All of this and the combat aircraft is not used for its designed capabilities in flag missions when it is part of the red team. Therefore, there is a desire for a UAV that can match the performance of the real adversaries, is less expensive to operate, and is more sustainable than the current alternatives to fill the role of red air...