An application of linear programming in the defence environment

Operational analysis (OA) techniques are used extensively by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to inform their decision-making process. One particular type of OA study frequently undertaken is a balance-of-investment (BoI) study. This paper focuses on recent BoI study whose aim was to identify the optimum (i.e. most cost effective) mix of vehicles that should be procured to fill a large number of identified requirements/roles. There will be a description of the methodology employed, highlighting the formulation and application of mixed integer linear programming (MILP) techniques, alongside a brief discussion of the implication of the results and other issues associated with the complexity of the problem.