Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2008. / Thesis Advisor(s): Carlyle, W. Matthew. "September 2008." AD-A488 887. Includes bibliographical references (p. 47-48). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / The United States is moving into a new era in which the enemy no longer provides symmetric opposition. The Navy and Marine Corps will face new challenges in the way they deploy and conduct future operations. One important way that these challenges will be met involves sea-based operations, which provide the sustainment necessary for prolonged operations and prevent unwanted operational pauses. Recent combat operations in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) demonstrated difficulties when sustaining forces from logistics bases ashore. For example, advancing the Army and Marines to Baghdad in OIF consumed large amounts of fuel and ammunition. The resupply could not replenish supplies and an operational pause began on 29 March, 2003. In order to prevent operational pauses, rapid movement from the sea to the objective must be implemented. This thesis analyzes the problem of finding an optimal mix of Combat Logistics Force shuttle ships required to sustain the sea-base. This is accomplished through two optimization models: The first one determines a shuttle mix ensuring required inventory levels at the sea-base are maintained at all times. Since this requirement may cause some shuttles to be loaded partially, in the second model we manually assign the shuttle mix and then minimize unmet demand. This model yields a mix of shuttles that strikes a balance between shuttle cost and meeting sea-base demand. This thesis uses varying distances for conducting analyses over several scenarios. / Captain, United States Marine Corps

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, Sept. 2004. / Thesis Advisor(s): Javier Salmeron. Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-36). Also available online.

System dynamics is based on principles borrowed from engineering—especially feedback concepts. It makes possible a representation of decision policies and information flow. The systems approach is a mixture of scientific approaches to conceptualizing problems and solving them through research, design and analysis. In system dynamics, differential equations are represented in the form of difference equations. There is no limit to the number that can be employed to represent the complex details of any system. The models developed here help in determining the superiority or inferiority of the Advanced Tactical Aircraft (ATA) over the baseline aircraft. The advanced tactical aircraft is a proposed replacement aircraft that can undertake any of the three missions—air superiority, fleet defense and attack/interdiction. The baseline aircraft for air superiority and fleet defense is the Tomcat Fighter, F-14 and for attack/interdiction it is Intruder, A-6. Several measures of effectiveness are presented to evaluate the superiority or inferiority of the replacement aircraft over the baseline aircraft. / Master of Science / incomplete_metadata