So what does it cost the United States Navy to conduct Humanitarian Operations?

Presented at Western Decision Sciences Institute (WDSI 2015) conference March 31- April 3, 2015The U.S. Department of Defense has stated that the conduct of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) missions are critical to U.S. national security interests. However, because records are not carefully archived, there is little known about the actual costs and cost drivers of HADR operations which are contingencies for which there are no Joint Staff scenarios to program capabilities against nor are there budgets to do so. This research will examine the financial expenditures of the USN in response to a set of disasters (2004 Tsunami in Sumatra, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami). Through the examination of these complex events, and an analysis of the existing literature on HADR finance, we will provide operational and financial policy recommendations to senior leaders and policy makers regarding those decisions that are most likely to trigger the most significant costs