An Integer Linear Program to Recommend Stationing of Army Forces

Abstract

In an October 20011etter to the Chairman and ranking members of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, eight former Defense Secretaries urged Congress to approve another round of military base closings, saying it is necessary for the US fight against terrorism. The current Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has similarly urged Congress for authority to undertake another round with many of his justifications spelled out in the 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). This paper presents an integer linear program, OSAF (Optimal Stationing of Army Forces) used by the Army for analyses to support the 2001 QDR. OSAF enables systematic examination of Army stationing alternatives and prescribes an optimal Army stationing for a given force structure, set of installations, available implementation dollars, and stationing restrictions. Each alternative stationing solution satisfies numerous unit requirements and is evaluated with a set of quantitative and qualitative metrics. We find a more efficient stationing of current Army forces can improve the use of Army facilities, ranges, and training land assets, as well as meet unit requirements at reduced cost. We also discuss the impact of some common stationing restrictions and discuss OSAF's planned role in future stationing analyses.