Rescuing Downed Aircrews: The Value of Time

In light of the impending drawdown of forces and the pressure to reduce defense budgets, this report describes research to quantify the “rescuability window” of downed aircrews to assist the U.S. Air Force’s reassessment of its personnel recovery force structure. The current research quantifies the relationship between rescuability and time so that the most cost-effective options for increasing the rescuability of downed personnel can be pursued.