Support for defense procurement decision structuring multi-criteria problems using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)

Abstract

The procurement of products, systems and their defense components presents characteristics that make operational research particularly useful for solving problems about choosing materials for the Armed Forces, including the multi-criteria decision support theory. The problem about defense procurement fits this methodology, as it involves the use of decision criteria for the most satisfactory choice among a finite set of defense products, since the high technology and the large resources required for the production of these systems make the defense market restricted to a few developers and manufacturers. A multi-criteria method widely used in the defense industry is the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), mainly due to its simplicity of validating expert’s evaluations. The AHP calculation equations are described here and can be implemented in different pieces of software, including Excel, R, and Python, among others. A simulated application presented how data were collected and the sequence of AHP calculations for a problem about choosing three aircraft, evaluated under six criteria, indicating an expert’s order of preference.