Research Summaries

Back Optimized Fuel Scheduling for Military Sealift Command's Combat Logistics Force

Fiscal Year 2018
Division Graduate School of Operational & Information Sciences
Department Operations Research
Investigator(s) Kline, Jeffery E.
Carlyle, William M.
Sponsor Military Sealift Command (Navy)
Summary On any maritime staff, a considerable amount of time is dedicated to logistics planning in support of Naval operations. Military Sealift Command (MSC) operates the Combat Logistics Force (CLF), the primary means by which Navy vessels are supported while deployed.
Essentially, CLF ships are afloat and very mobile warehouses that sustain the Navy’s combatant forces via the at-sea transfer of fuel, material, provisions and ordnance. While MSC operates the CLF, with responsibility for the maintenance, safety and administrative functions on board each ship, the actual employment of the CLF falls to officers and sailors on a Fleet staff who develop a daily schedule of events for the CLF fleet in an operational theater.
This project will continue the development, installation and support for the Replenishment at Sea Planner (RASP), an optimization-based decision support system to aid short-term scheduling of Military Sealift Command Combat Logistics Force (CLF) resupply shuttle ships. The goal of this scheduling is to reduce CLF fuel consumption while maintaining sufficient commodity levels on board combatant customer ships in a specified theater of operations.
NPS is continuing research efforts to develop a desk-top, operational planning solution that will generate optimal replenishment schedules for the CLF. The primary focus of the tool is to minimize CLF fuel consumption while servicing combatant customer ships with adequate supplies. The secondary focus shifts to the planning staff itself, seeking to reduce task force staff workload through the automation of data capture and standardized report generation.
Our Navy students solve operational planning problems in our advanced classes with these same decision support tools the fleet planners utilize to support combatants and coalition partners. Some of our students have gone on to become fleet planners, and we are sure the receiving commands are pleasantly surprised when these replacements arrive already equipped with deep domain expertise.
Keywords at-sea transfer of fuel and provisions needed in deployment logistics planning
Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal