To support Humanitarian Assistance Disaster Relief (HADR) operations, the U.S. military maintains agile logistics capabilities, transportation networks, and response forces across the globe. III Marine Expeditionary Force serves as the first responder to HADR events for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, where planners must optimize the throughput of relief assets from aerial ports of embarkation to aerial ports of debarkation to reduce response penalties (i.e., loss of life and human suffering). Our MBA project developed a model, Joint Transportation Optimization Planner—Aviation (JTOP-A), that assists in identifying how many organic KC-130J assets are necessary for cargo transport given required supply throughput. It also identified transportation gaps, which USAF C-5s and C-17s can fill. JTOP-A minimizes response penalties by selecting optimal solutions for movement of relief assets to the point of disaster. JTOP-A optimizes four scenarios replicating historic HADR events. Findings include: (1) The model supports optimal solutions to meet demand, recognizes aircraft/airfield compatibility, and allows Users to divert to available airfields when primary airfields are damaged. (2) The model is sensitive to the weighted coefficient, a parameter. (3) The model supports a "Day One" planning factor for response operations. We recommend the following for future research: expand the model to more locations, implement time horizons, and include tilt-rotor/rotary wing aircraft.
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