The challenges of Iraq: putting US Army stability operations doctrine to the test

The US Army develops doctrine as a set of fundamental principles that guide its actions in support of national objectives. Recently, those national objectives required stability operations, with increasing scope and frequency. This study examines whether existing US Army doctrine adequately fulfilled its role as a guide to tactics in addressing the challenges that Army forces faced in the first 15 months of the war in Iraq. Field Manual 3-24 Counterinsurgency has remedied many deficiencies, but several remain to be addressed to offer commanders better guidance in the face of the many complex challenges they face in stability operations.     

Allies at War: British and US Army Command Culture in the Italian Campaign, 1943–1944

This article compares the philosophy and practice of command in the British and US Armies during the Italian Campaign of 1943–44. It assesses pre-war influences on the command approach adopted by each army, and shows how refinements derived from wartime experience enabled British and American commanders to successfully utilise mission command principles to outfight the German Army in the latter years of World War II. This examination directly challenges the historical consensus that Allied commanders were disadvantaged by an inability to exploit the advantages of mission command, and that the German Army retained superior command practices, despite its other failings, throughout the fighting between 1939 and 1945. These conclusions hold additional relevance to modern military organisations which have emphasised mission command as the optimal solution to effective command in battle since the 1980s, but from an inaccurate understanding of German, British and American command traditions and experience that persists to this day.     

快速部署机场指挥决策关键技术

针对快速部署机场指挥决策问题,分析了美军指挥决策技术发展现状,重点研究了快速部署机场指挥决策需要的态势感知、决策模型设计与优化、知识表示与存储、案例推理、综合业务信息查询、任务流程规划、模拟推演与效能评估、行动监视与动态干预、软硬件系统综合集成等9项关键技术及其相互之间的关系,指出任务规划是指挥决策过程的核心任务。最后分析了模型设计、案例推理、推演评估、3S技术等四个方面存在的主要技术应用难点。     

The sources of the Australian tradition in irregular warfare, 1942–1974

This article had its genesis in a background study for the development of a new Australian Army counter-insurgency doctrine. Archival research showed that the Australian counter-insurgency doctrine employed in such post-1945 conflicts as Burma, Malaya, Borneo and Vietnam originated in the jungle campaigns of the South West Pacific Area during World War II. The historical record also showed that the Army's counter-insurgency doctrine, as with its World War II-jungle warfare doctrine, was a pragmatic amalgam of Australian experience and British doctrine. The article traces this process through the development of a series of doctrine manuals. It also considers the contribution of key individuals to both counter-insurgency theory and practice. This distinctively Australian approach to the development of doctrine was responsible for producing a highly successful manual, The Division in Battle: Pamphlet No. 11, Counter-Revolutionary Warfare (DIB 11), which the Army used during its involvement in Vietnam.     

Implementing sustainable mission command in the Hellenic Army

The modern Mission Command philosophy in military operations originated with the German concept of Auftragstaktik (mission tactics). It emphasizes in general terms the exercise of disciplined initiatives by subordinates during the execution of mission-type orders in the course of military operations that are conducted within the overall intent of a commander. The present paper contains an overview of the historical evolution of the mission command concept and its application. The paper compares the mission command concept with the detailed or linear method of command. This paper focuses on the relevance of the mission command concept for the Hellenic Land Forces (HLF) in Greece. The paper provides a historical account on when and where mission command was successfully exercised by the Hellenic Armed Forces in the modern military history of Greece. The authors support the premise that the mission command concept is essential for safeguarding Greek national security in the current environment of evolving symmetric and asymmetric threats, and in meeting operational challenges in a diverse and difficult terrain. The paper examines the cultural reasons that have impeded the adoption of the mission command concept within the HLF and recommends a three-phase model for its permanent implementation.     

Command Coordination and Tactical Effectiveness in Counter-insurgency Operations: Lessons from the South Korean Campaign

This article analyzes the causes of combat effectiveness of the South Korean security forces through the course of its various counter-insurgency (COIN) operations from 1948 to 1953. We argue that improvements in two interrelated aspects ultimately resulted in higher operational and tactical level performance: unified operational command structure and the subsequent improvements in tactical efficiency under the guidance of the US advisory mission. Through an in-depth case study on how a nascent army improved its capacity in combating homegrown insurgencies, we demonstrate how the actual conduct of operations itself remains just as significant in the assessment of overall COIN outcomes.     

炮兵指挥决策中优选作战方案的神经网络模型

优选作战方案是炮兵指挥决策的重要内容.如何从炮兵众多的作战方案中确定其价值,并根据作战任务需要选出最佳方案,是炮兵指挥员及其参谋人员的-项重要任务.根据神经网络中联想记忆的-般模型和迭代解法对炮兵作战方案进行分析和排序,并可运用计算机进行处理,为炮兵指挥员的决策行为提供依据.     

基于关联分析法的指挥引导方式优化研究

指挥引导是作战指挥的重要组成部分,指挥引导效率的高低直接关系到作战效能的发挥。现代战争条件下,为完成某一作战任务,所需出动的兵力较多,空中态势复杂,如何合理分配指挥引导机构的指挥引导任务,选择有利的引导方式,对完成任务影响很大。因此,结合指挥引导的特点和要求,对指挥引导能力进行分析,设定相关参数的具体示例,运用动态规划理论、关联分析方法,通过建模和解算,确定各项指标的关联度,尝试解决影响指挥引导能力分配诸多复杂因素的关联问题,对指挥引导方式进行优化。     

Mission Command in the Information Age: A Normal Accidents Perspective on Networked Military Operations

Theory on the use of information technology in military operations assumes that bringing together units in an information network helps units to work together. Decentralized command systems such as mission command have been proposed for these networks, so that units can adapt to changes in their turbulent working environments. Others have proposed centralized command systems that permit higher organizational levels to closely direct military operations. This article uses Perrow’s (1984, 1999) Normal Accidents Theory to propose that increasing interdependencies between units in information networks places incompatible demands on the design of networked military operations. It is concluded that networked military operations require decentralized command approaches, but only under the condition that interdependencies between modules of networked units are weak rather than tight. This precondition is essential for retaining control over networked military operations.     

Operational idealism: doctrine development of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army under Soviet threat, 1969–1989

This article analyses the doctrine development of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) coping with the Soviet military threat between 1969 and 1989. In the 1970s, the PLA applied a doctrine of ‘active defence and luring the enemy into depth’ based on its traditional operational art. In 1980, the PLA decided to focus its doctrine on positional defence. In 1986, the PLA introduced ‘integrated operations and prioritised strike’, a generalised doctrine that originated from its war history. Many organisational and intellectual challenges in peacetime doctrine development contributed to the PLA’s operational idealism, including its aging leadership, command structure, attitude towards its previous experience, limited analysis of contemporary military developments, and failure in test and validation of doctrines. In the post-Cold War decade, many of these challenges persisted in spite of military modernization efforts. The ongoing military reform has to address these challenges and improve the PLA doctrine development in peacetime.     

美军作战构想及其生成方法

随着战争复杂性剧增,作战构想的地位和作用日益凸显。美军以逻辑链为作战构想的基本表现形式,以作战设计为作战构想生成的思维工具,强调发挥作战艺术,提升作战构想质量,并构建了"四步一体"的作战构想生成流程。     

一体化联合作战指挥信息流通体系逻辑结构分析

针对协同性联合作战向一体化联合作战转变对作战指挥产生的影响,在正确定位指挥信息流通体系的基础上,从一体化联合作战的本质特征及对指挥信息流通体系的影响出发,设计了基本作战单元指挥信息输入、输出模型,并通过将作战体系区分为四类模块,得出了指挥信息流通体系的逻辑结构.     

‘Restoring normalcy’: The evolution of the Indian army's counterinsurgency doctrine

The Indian Army has a uniquely political approach to counterinsurgency that has had great success. This essay examines the development of this doctrine over the last five decades, and the political and operational factors that influenced its development. The most important of these factors was, and remains, the Army's positional‐war orientation, which puts great emphasis on the need to prepare for conventional war. Though the doctrine has undergone some evolution, such changes have been constrained by the positional‐war orientation.     

天基信息支援指挥控制体系运行机制及复杂网络建模?

天基信息支援是当前联合作战的主要样式之一，指挥控制体系是天基信息支援联合作战的核心和神经中枢，构建天基信息支援指挥控制体系运行机制和网络结构模型有助于提升天基信息支援乃至联合作战体系效能。探讨了天基信息支援云作战的基本概念和主要特点、天基信息支援云作战体系的构成和运行机制、以及天基信息支援云作战指挥控制体系的构成和流程，勾画了天基信息支援云作战指挥控制的理论框架，并结合示例构建了天基信息支援云作战指挥控制体系结构的复杂网络模型，并进行了主要参量分析，对开展天基信息支援指挥控制体系建设，指导天基信息支援以及联合作战体系需求论证、结构设计、评估优化等具有积极而现实的参考价值。     

迫击炮数字化指挥技术

研究了野战炮兵中的迫击炮分队在射击指挥方面摆脱传统的定位、测地和侦察三方独立不成系统的模式,采用当前比较先进、可靠性和精确的光电技术和现代电子技术将迫击炮的指挥通过建立新的射击系统模型,重新合成一个相对独立的指挥子系统,本系统集侦察、测地计算和指挥于一体,大大提升迫击炮在现代战场中的控制和转换战局的地位,充分发挥机动型作战部队在敌后空降作战的优势,体现传统武器和现代指挥技术完美结合下,指挥系统的机动性、灵活性和对敌后方区域的侵袭和压制、破坏敌方火力点的优点,尤其对于敌后空降作战和正面登岛作战效果更为突出。     

What is Doctrine?

‘Doctrine’ has been part of military vernacular for at least a century. Nonetheless, it is a concept which is rather under-explored. The aim of this article is thus to break doctrine down into its component parts in order to grasp what a military doctrine actually is. Thereafter, the article points out different ways to utilise doctrine as a military devise. A doctrine cannot be, or rather should not be, all things to all men. On the contrary, doctrine can be a tool of command, tool of education or a tool of change. The main upshot of the article is that the future of doctrine is far brighter than its critics want us to believe.     

网络中心战对潜艇作战指挥的影响

网络中心战是由美军提出的一种在信息化战争中的作战模式,通过分析网络中心战的概念框架结构,得出在网络中心战条件下军队应该具备的三种能力.同时潜艇作为信息化海战中的主要作战平台,网络中心战理论的提出改变了潜艇传统的作战模式,对我海军潜艇作战指挥和装备的发展有着重要的参考价值.     

Demobilisation,disarmament and reintegration in the Democratic Republic of Congo: The numbers game

Abstract

The creation of the Africa Command (AFRICOM) has reflected the growth in the strategic importance of Africa in US foreign policy since the end of the 1990s. One of the objectives of this new geographical military command is to forge closer links between foreign, security and development policies. However, this approach met with a number of difficulties associated with the challenge of ‘inter-agency cooperation’ among rather disparate actors from foreign affairs, defence and development. In addition, the establishment of AFRICOM has met with fierce criticism in the US and elsewhere – especially in Africa – culminating in the charge that the US foreign and development policies in Africa are being militarised. Although AFRICOM has a number of interesting features, this paper shows that it has reacted to these criticisms by realigning itself more closely with the traditional model of a military command, at the expense of the innovative interagency elements.     

Integrating the Services and Harnessing the Military Area Commands

ABSTRACT

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is halfway through a multi-decade modernization process. It has begun a major restructuring effort as it shifts its focus from a traditional continental defensive posture to a more maritime-oriented emphasis. In order to create more balanced joint force, it has adjusted the structure of its highest command organization, the Central Military Commission; abolished the former four General Departments and seven Military Regions; created five new joint Theater Commands and service-level commands for the Army and Rocket Force; and is reducing the size of its active duty force by 300,000 personnel. While seeking to overcome numerous internal obstacles, the PLA continues to develop and improve its capabilities to conduct integrated joint operations to deter a variety of threats to China’s sovereignty and territory and, if deterrence fails, to win informationized local war.     

基于作战体系结构的装备指挥信息系统作战需求分析

作战需求分析是装备指挥信息系统建设的关键环节,为系统建设提供可靠依据和理论支撑.运用指挥关系模型、装备保障活动模型、作战接点连接能力、信息交换矩阵等体系结构方法对装备指挥信息系统的信息交互进行分析,得出装备指挥信息交互对装备指挥信息系统的作战需求.体系结构化方法是获取作战需求的有效途径,运用作战体系结构研究装备指挥信息系统,为科学、合理地建设装备指挥信息系统提供了一种新的分析研究方法.