Development of Operational Vehicle Profiles for Fuel Estimation

Military vehicles are designed and tested to meet specific performance and durability standards. However, how these vehicles are actually used in the field is uncertain and may not reflect the current planning factors used for predicting the amount of fuel required to support operations. One of the main challenges is capturing the underlying data needed to develop accurate, real-world usage profiles. In order to overcome this challenge and produce more accurate fuel predictions, the Transformation Decision Analysis Center (TDAC) has leveraged usage data from training operations to develop operationally relevant profiles, and applied modeling techniques to estimate fuel consumption values more aligned to real-world operations than typical planning factors.
In order to develop and refine this methodology, TDAC focused on historical datasets from the National Training Center (NTC, Ft. Irwin, California), as data from training rotations simulates real-world Army operations for which data are typically unavailable. Specifically, Global Positioning System (GPS) data from NTC rotations was combined with elevation and terrain information from external sources to create detailed usage profiles. Since fuel consumption data were not collected during the NTC rotations, these usage profiles were used to generate fuel estimates using TDAC’s fuel modeling techniques. This data-driven approach enables the development of operationally relevant usage profiles and fuel consumption estimates, providing valuable insights to inform science and technology (S&T), acquisition, and sustainment-related decisions.