The military has increasingly been used for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) operations over the past two decades. HADR operations are an essential component of building international relations that often falls under the responsibility of the U.S. military. Department of Defense assets deploy globally to provide relief to other nations, and first responders offer valuable aid and provide supplies. Due to the nature of these missions, there is very little time for planning to respond to specific disasters. Disaster relief missions can take place in very austere environments where infrastructure may have been destroyed, making the people who need supplies harder to reach. We propose the use of a low-cost, low-maintenance, low-tech tool based on space-filling curves for vehicle route planning in HADR operations or similar high-impact missions and use simulation experiments to assess its performance. By utilizing this space-filling curve approach for route planning, the military can achieve up to 40 percent savings in distance traveled, fuel used, and time to complete deliveries over base case situations. Additionally, if used in conjunction with non-traditional delivery methods like unmanned aerial vehicles, better route planning methods can reduce fuel consumption and improve delivery timeliness even further.
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