NPS-LM-21-012 ACQUISITION RESEARCH PROGRAM SPONSORED REPORT SERIES An Analysis of Vertical Lift Platforms in Support of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Operations December 2020 CDR Scott Chirgwin, USN ENS Davis P. Katakura, USN Thesis Advisors: Dr. Aruna U Apte, Professor Dr. Kenneth. H. Doerr, Associate Professor Graduate School of Defense Management Naval Postgraduate School Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. Prepared for the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA 93943. Acquisition Research Program Graduate School of Defense Management Naval Postgraduate School The research presented in this report was supported by the Acquisition Research Program of the Graduate School of Defense Management at the Naval Postgraduate School. To request defense acquisition research, to become a research sponsor, or to print additional copies of reports, please contact the Acquisition Research Program (ARP) via email,
[email protected] or at 831-656-3793. Acquisition Research Program Graduate School of Defense Management Naval Postgraduate School ABSTRACT The purpose of this research was to examine how the capabilities of the various vertical lift platforms, coupled with their unit cost, can be modeled and optimized to inform future decisions when tasking theater assets to assist in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) operations. A multi-criteria analysis was used to compare alternatives across key performance measures, such as search and rescue (SAR) capability, load capacity, range determination, and crew performance limitations. Additionally, we gave operational commanders a realistic assessment of daily capacity and cost, as well as the limitations thereof, through Monte Carlo risk simulation. Results from our models provided both an optimal vertical lift aircraft mix and scalable results in terms of daily pounds of goods delivered.