Sizing initial stockpiles in a conventional military retrograde movement

The importance of stockpiles in waging and supporting war has long been recognized by the military. However, despite this recognition, very few theoretical attempts have been undertaken to incorporate stockpile considerations in land combat models. This paper describes a multicriteria optimization model to estimate the minimum stockpile required to sustain fighting a conventional mobile delaying land battle. By studying the post-optimality analysis, valuable insights on the relationships between the key governing parameters can be established.