Determining Air Base Installation Capacity Through Multivariate Analysis

Per the Air Force Strategic Master Plan, the Air Force will adjust their current basing structure to provide the most effective and efficient installations to support national defense objectives. The Air Force may be required to make strategic basing decisions that close installations and relocate missions to achieve an optimal basing structure. However, before making these decisions, the Air Force needs to have a comprehensive understanding of installation capacity. This research provides an operational definition of installation capacity, which is necessary for measuring installation-level, infrastructure capacity. Using this definition, the research evaluates a set of capacity indicators using principal component analysis (PCA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The results identify the underlying structure of the capacity data and determine what factors influence capacity. In addition, the component and factor scores provide information about capacity characteristics at each installation, and how they compare to other installations. Finally, this research created a composite scoring model, the Installation Composite Capacity (ICC), which measures the overall capacity at each installation. The Air Force can use the results and insight gained from this research to develop an optimized basing structure that meets present, and future, defense needs