Abstract
Purpose This paper introduces a new heuristic algorithm that aims to solve the military route vulnerability problem, which involves assessing the vulnerability of military cargo flowing over roads and railways subject to enemy interdiction. Design/methodology/approach Graph theory, a heuristic and a binary integer program are used in this paper. Findings This work allows transportation analysts at the United States Transportation Command to identify a relatively small number of roads or railways that, if interdicted by an enemy, could disrupt the flow of military cargo within any theater of operation. Research limitations/implications This research does not capture aspects of time, such as the reality that cargo requirements and enemy threats may fluctuate each day of the contingency. Practical implications This work provides military logistics planners and decision-makers with a vulnerability assessment of theater distribution routes, including insights into which specific roads and railways may require protection to ensure the successful delivery of cargo from ports of debarkation to final destinations. Originality/value This work merges network connectivity and flow characteristics with enemy threat assessments to identify militarily-useful roads and railways most vulnerable to enemy interdictions. A geographic combatant command recently used this specific research approach to support their request for rapid rail repair capability.
Highlights
The United States Transportation Command is responsible for identifying vulnerabilities to distribution operations and recommending mitigations (US Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2017)
A complex aspect of distribution operations is theater distribution, which is the movement of military cargo over supply routes consisting of roads and railways in an environment likely to be contested by an enemy
A typical military route vulnerability problem (MRVP) is within an overseas country that is likely to be contested by an enemy; the notional scenarios in this paper are entirely within the USA to avoid security classification issues
Summary
The United States Transportation Command is responsible for identifying vulnerabilities to distribution operations and recommending mitigations (US Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2017). A complex aspect of distribution operations is theater distribution, which is the movement of military cargo over supply routes consisting of roads and railways in an environment likely to be contested by an enemy. Ground assets such as trucks and railcars are the most common means of delivering cargo over military supply routes, which are often vulnerable to enemy interdiction by direct attacks, such as missiles, and indirect attacks, such as cyber operations. Analysts at the command have informally termed this transportation problem the military route vulnerability problem (MRVP), which is the focus of this paper. A heuristic is developed using a similar approach to solve large instances of the MRVP, which considers three components:
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