An Outranking Electre-Based Modeling for Setting the Naval Core Components of an Amphibious Task Force

Abstract

Selecting the naval components to be part of a task force is a typical setting decision problem wherein each component of the task force should complement the others. This decision situation calls for the use of outranking modeling tools instead of the additive ones, which are usually used when selecting group components. This study applies Electre I to develop an original approach to this hypothetical problem: the composition of the Amphibian Readiness Group, used in the United States. Despite being a hypothetical decision situation, the work uses real data from American media. We use Electre I because it is a native outranking multicriteria decision method, designed to address choice decisions. Moreover, we take the support of The Visual Outdeck web app (Outranking Decision and Knowledge app) to implement the model and the Electre I multicriteria algorithm and a sensitivity analysis of the results regarding the weights and the agreement and disagreement cut-off levels. Further we apply the same input data to an additive decision algorithm, allowing comparison of the results. Consequently, we established the setting of the task force by utilizing elements that optimally complement the others in the task force configuration. Furthermore, the study finds that this task force differs from the one that should be constituted using traditional additive modeling. The main contribution of this study is that it provides a robust discussion and original modeling that supports military decision-makers while selecting a better set of military taskforces.