Determining the Surface-To-Air Missile Requirement for Western and Southern Part of the Turkish Air Defense System

An air defense system is vital for countries to protect their homelands. Today, air defense systems consist of integrated systems such as early warning radars, fighter aircraft, airborne early warning aircraft and surface-to-air (SAM) systems. The Turkish air defense system does not have long range SAM systems. Turkey plans to procure SAM systems to protect her borders. This research develops two location optimization models to optimally locate SAM sites to defend specified areas of the nation. One of the models finds the minimum number of SAM sites to cover the specified area; the other finds the maximum coverage for a given number of SAM sites. The model is formulated as an integer program, and the LINGO 10 software package is used to solve the model. Three candidate SAM systems are examined. All models use the maximum range of each SAM system. Solutions are presented for the decision makers to examine. Sensitivity analysis is used to explore how much the optimal solution(s) change given fluctuations in input values. The main objective of this research is to provide the Turkish Air Force coverage information regarding the three candidate SAM systems. This research also provides a model and an approach that can be used to examine other candidate systems. The results and models presented in this research should facilitate development of a more efficient and effective air defense system to support Turkey's homeland defense.