The Capability Assessment and Tradeoff Environment (CATE) for Advanced Aerospace Vehicle and Technology Assessment

New, advanced aerospace vehicles are being considered for inclusion in the existing fleet of Joint Service air vehicles, based on the evolving needs of these organizations. The difficulty for design teams and the requirements community is arriving at a good estimate of what a particular configuration may look like, as well as what technologies are needed to enable it, given a set of strict requirements. The Capability Assessment and Tradeoff Environment (CATE) has been created to support aerospace vehicle decision making with structured vehicle and technology assessment processes and tools. The CATE enables rapid evaluation and visualization of vehicles and trades, off-design performance assessment, capability gap detection, technology definitions, and technology portfolio selection. In this paper, the creation of the CATE is outlined, and the processes it enables for vehicle and technology assessment are described.