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Beyond Platform Type: How Vegetation, Sensors, and Tactics Shape Aerial Search and Rescue Outcomes

A 48-sortie field exercise with 12 professional air crews found vegetation strongly affected POD; thermal-equipped helicopters and UAS had comparable POD, while initial sweeps found targets faster than detailed searches.

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  • Author(s): Andreas A. Nilsen; Tale R. Størdal; Vegard Johansen; Jørgen L.H. Ronge; Eyvind Grytting

  • Citation: Complete citation not verified; preprint, version 1.

  • Publisher(s): Preprints.org / MDPI

  • Publication date: 15 April 2026

  • Country: Norway

Why it matters: Useful empirical caution against tasking by platform label alone. Sensor, vegetation, search mode and airspace coordination should shape aerial-search POD assumptions and tasking.

Limitations and transferability: Promising but preliminary: static targets, cool conditions (9–15°C) favourable to thermal contrast, and only four visual-only sorties. Applicable to air-search planning with local validation of vegetation and thermal conditions. Preprints.org

Training influence: Use a tabletop exercise requiring crews to justify helicopter/UAS tasking, altitude separation, initial sweep versus detailed search, and revised POD after a thermal-negative search.

SAR training sections: POA/POD and cumulative probability; resource selection and tasking; Search Operations; UAV operations; aerial visual search; reassessment and replanning.

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