A multi-modal discrete-event simulation model for military deployment

Abstract

This paper introduces a logistics and transportation simulation that can be used to provide insights into potential outcomes of proposed military deployment plans. More specifically, we model a large-scale real-world military deployment planning problem (DPP) that involves planning the movement of military units from their home bases to their final destinations using different transportation assets on a multi-modal transportation network. We apply, for the first time, the event graph methodology and listener event graph object framework to create a simulation model of the DPP. We use and extend Simkit, an open-source Java Application Programming Interface for creating discrete-event simulation (DES) models. We use a medium-resolution modeling approach, as opposed to either high-resolution or low-resolution modeling paradigms, to reduce lengths of simulation runs without compromising reality. To accurately incorporate real and detailed transportation network data into the simulation, we use GeoKIT, a licensed, state-of-the-art, Java-based geographical information system. While our DES model is not a panacea for all, it allows for testing the feasibility and sensitivity of deployment plans under stochastic conditions prior to committing members of the military into harm's way. The purpose of the paper is to acquaint the readers with the details of the DPP, the simulation model created, and the results of the analysis of a typical real-world case study.