An Initial Hybrid Simulation Analyzing US Air Force Sustainment Performance

摘要

Each year the United States Air Force (AF) spends approximately $14 billion to sustain existing weapon systems. Typical sustainment activities include purchasing spare parts and funding both maintenance and overhaul activities. In this resource constrained environment, the AF regularly makes sustainment funding allocation decisions by considering overall AF objectives and the contribution of sustainment activities towards attaining certain performance targets. Given the complex dynamics of the AF's fleet and sustainment processes (in terms of size, number of interactions, and time horizons), there are significant opportunities to utilize simulation models to better understand the complex strategic impact that sustainment funding decisions have on AF performance measures. Initial versions of this simulation model combine two major paradigms of simulation, System Dynamics (SD) and Process-Driven (PD), due to a mixed abstraction frequently observed in AF sustainment execution. At a high level, the funding and level of resources are from a flow perspective (SD). At a lower level, the availability of resources to meet mission needs is from a daily process perspective (PD). Utilizing AnyLogic, we demonstrate the feasibility, technical challenges, and results of this approach. Implications are relevant to funding decisions at both the individual system and aggregate AF levels.