Tactical mobility modeling for REFORGER 87

Abstract : The Waterways Experiment Station (WES) responded to requests by the U.S. Army III Corps, 64th Engineer Detachment (Terrain) by providing trafficability support for the REFORGER 87 military exercises in the Federal Republic of Germany. The maneuver area covered 25 1:50,000-scale topographic map sheets. A digital mobility database was developed within a period of one month. A principal source of information was Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data, which was integrated with various other digital factor maps necessary for computer modeling of vehicle mobility. The Condensed Army Mobility Model System (CAMMS) was used to evaluate the performance of specified vehicles operating off-road in the maneuver area. CAMMS correctly predicted a NOGO situation for an area where several U.S. armored vehicles were immobilized when a gravel road failed and the vehicles were unable to traverse the surrounding organic clay soil and associated drainage ditches.