Operational Risk Assessment for Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles by using Structural Health and Event Management

Abstract : UAV / UCAV will always be operated in a system of system scenario in order to achieve the highest possible mission effectiveness. Mission availability and reliability are the key elements and absolutely essential. Moreover, availability is a prerequisite to avoid mission delays or even mission interruptions from an economical point of view availability helps to safe mission costs. For this reason new concepts and technologies are required to determine the operational and aircraft safety risk to perform the next mission or in terms of an unscheduled event to perform a risk assessment to continue or to abort the current mission. The present paper intends to discuss the operational risk assessment in context of the required structural health monitoring capabilities as part of an integrated health management system. The discussion will be focused on the following main topics: 1) Operational Requirements related to maximise mission availability. 2) Integration Requirements 3) Structural Health Monitoring System Design Concept related to the Aircraft Structural Integrity requirements.