Optimal Military Transportation in a Korean Theater

Abstract : Due to their high dependency on highway transportation, Republic of Korea's (ROK's) military and industry suffer from congestion, shortfall of means (convoys in the military case), high cost and increase in environmental damage. Our research develops an optimization model to guide ROK's military planning using multi-modal transportation. We apply our Military Logistics Transportation Model (MLTM) to a realistic scenario. MLTM provides guidance on the optimal frequency of transportation services and the optimal routes for the freight. By comparing the solution of MLTM with current practice for Wartime Transportation Planning (represented by a heuristic method), our MLTM can reduce the transportation cost up to 29%. This is enabled by the activation of multi-modal transportation and service sharing by multiple demands. We also analyze scenarios in which either seaport of debarkation (SPOD) where the supply originates has been shut down by enemy attacks. We find that losing Busan SPOD is more damaging than losing Kwangyang SPOD.