A Hybrid Location Method for Missile Security Team Positioning

This research provides solutions to the problem of locating security teams over a geographic area to maintain security for US Air Force Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Systems. A combination of two location modeling techniques, the p-median and p-center models, is used to generate solutions which minimize the distances traveled while minimizing the maximum distance any one missile site is from required security forces. Solutions are generated using heuristic and optimization techniques in a VBA enhanced Excel spreadsheet. Results indicate that a significant improvement can be achieved and the techniques are currently being tested by the Air Force for possible implementation.