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We study the problem of finding optimal locations for a suite of defense assets in order to protect high-value tactical and strategic infrastructure across a vast geographical area. To this end, we present a multi-type with non-overlapping coverage requirement as an extension to the classical formulation for the maximal covering location problem (MCLP).

In our case study, we use open source geographic and demographic data from Canadian sources as inputs to our optimization problem. Due to the complexity of the MIP formulation, we propose a hybrid metaheuristic solution approach, for which a genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed and integrated with local and large neighborhood search operators.

Extensive numerical experiments over different instances of the proposed problem indicate the effectiveness of the GA-based solution in reducing the solution time by a factor of ten compared to the CPLEX commercial solver while both approaches obtain solutions of similar quality.

This research is limited to location planning of defense assets leveraging geospatial data of Canada. However, the diverse Canadian geography is among the most challenging given broad variability in population density and the vast size of the country leading to a large search space having substantial variability in fitness performance.

Our findings demonstrate that for large-scale location searches, the GA with a local neighborhood search performs very well in comparison to CPLEX but at a fraction of the execution time.

Our findings provide insight into how to make improved decisions for the placement of deterrence and defense systems and the effectiveness of a hybrid metaheuristic in addressing associated computational challenges.