Abstract
A methodology has been developed to integrate the vulnerability discipline into the conceptual/preliminary design process of combat aircraft. An interactive and programmable solid modelling Computer Aided Design (CAD) system is used to generate a CAD solid model of the aircraft’s critical components. The aircraft’s components’ sizes and shapes are pre-defined by a conceptual/preliminary design synthesis computer model. A systematic Child-Parent assembly process is used to model the aircraft vulnerability, by defining the criticality degree of each component in the aircraft assembly. Solid Modelling CAD techniques have been modified to develop techniques to perform the two main standard vulnerability assessments, namely the shotline and vulnerable area methods.