Scheduling Army deployments to two nearly simultaneous major regional conflicts

Abstract

The United States military strategy is currently focusing on Major Regional Conflicts (MRCs), rather than on a single, major war. The Plural NRC model, PaMM, is an integer programming model and solution procedure that develops deployment schedules for active duty Army combat divisions to two nearly simultaneous MRCs without perfect information regarding the second NRC. PaMM develops the deployment schedules using a sequential heuristic: It first solves the optimal deployment schedules for a single NRC, fixes all movement that occurs before the hypothesized start date of a second NRC, and solves the resulting problem for both NRCs. The sequential technique is robust: Using a hypothetical scenario where all divisions for the first NRC are required within the first 30 days, PaMM is run six times, varying the time difference between the start dates of the NRCs form 10 to 60 days. The deployment schedules for the first NRC are comparable to the 'optimal' deployment schedules created using perfect information.