Evaluating military training aircrafts through the combination of multi-criteria decision making processes with fuzzy logic. A case study in the Spanish Air Force Academy

The combination of Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) processes with Fuzzy Logic can be efficiently applied to solve decision problems with criteria differing in nature. This combination is used in the present work to solve a real world decision problem of interest for the Spanish Air Force, specifically, the selection of the best military training aircraft based on a set of criteria. This decision problem involves, on one hand, quantitative or technical criteria (service ceiling, endurance, etc.) and, on the other hand, qualitative criteria (human factors, flying and handling qualities, etc.) based on the experience of a set of senior pilots and flight instructors of the Spanish Air Force collected via surveys. In order to extract information from the expert surveys, the MCDM process was combined with fuzzy logic. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to obtain the weights of the criteria and, through the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), the alternatives were evaluated. This work is a preliminary study of the training aircraft alternatives proposed by the Air Staff and the Logistic Support Command of the Spanish Air Force. These alternatives were chosen based on operational criteria which are detailed in the work. As a result of the decision process used, the best alternative was shown to be the Pilatus PC-21 aircraft.