Optimal Stationing of US Army Forces in Korea

Abstract

Closing and realigning installations has long been a part of the United States (US) Army's reformation. Since 1988, more than 100 Army bases have been closed and 20 others significantly realigned within the US. Since the end of the Cold War, the US Army has closed seven of every ten bases in Europe. These extensive overseas closures do not receive the same level of US public attention as those taking place within the US but they represent the fundamental shift from a forward-deployed force to one relying upon overseas presence and power projection. To develop closure and realignment recommendations for installations located in the US, the Army has developed the integer linear program OSAF (Optimal Stationing of Army Forces). This thesis modifies OSAF to study the stationing of US units and closure of US installations in South Korea. We call the modified model OSAFK (Optimal stationing of US Army Forces in Korea). OSAFK examines multiple stationing alternatives simultaneously and provides an optimal (minimum cost) stationing for a given set of units and installations while observing budgetary restrictions and stationing policy. We demonstrate OSAFK using a limited data set that considers 51 installations and 194 units. We compare the 20-year net present value of the total cost and the stationing recommended by OSAFK under various levels of budget and find the potential for a substantial reduction to the 20-year net present value.