Optimal timing of switches between product sales for sports and entertainment tickets

Like airlines and hotels, sports teams and entertainment venues can benefit from revenue management efforts for their ticket sales. Teams and entertainment venues usually offer bundles of tickets early in their selling horizon and put single‐event tickets on sale at a later date; these organizations must determine the best time to offer individual tickets because both types of ticket sales consume the same fixed inventory. We model the optimal a priori timing decision for a seller with a fixed number of identical tickets to switch from selling the tickets as fixed bundles to individual tickets to maximize the revenue realized before the start of the performance season. We assume that bundle and single‐ticket customers each arrive according to independent, nonhomogeneous Markovian death processes with a linear death rate that can vary over time and that the benefit from selling a ticket in a package is higher than from selling the ticket individually. We characterize the circumstances in which it is optimal for the seller to practice mixed bundling and when the seller should only sell bundles or individual tickets, and we establish comparative statics for the optimal timing decision for the special case of constant customer arrival rates. We extend our analytical results to find the optimal time for offering two groups of tickets with high and low demand. Finally, we apply the timing model to a data set obtained from the sports industry. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

Optimal resource allocation and redistribution strategy in military conflicts with Lanchester square law attrition

We address the problem of optimal decision‐making in conflicts based on Lanchester square law attrition model where a defending force needs to be partitioned optimally, and allocated to two different attacking forces of differing strengths and capabilities. We consider a resource allocation scheme called the Time Zero Allocation with Redistribution (TZAR) strategy, where allocation is followed by redistribution of defending forces, on the occurrence of certain decisive events. Unlike previous work on Lanchester attrition model based tactical decision‐making, which propose time sequential tactics through an optimal control approach, the present article focuses on obtaining simpler resource allocation tactics based on a static optimization framework, and demonstrates that the results obtained are similar to those obtained by the more complex dynamic optimal control solution. Complete solution for this strategy is obtained for optimal partitioning of resources of the defending forces. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

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.     

Controlled warfare: how directed-energy weapons will enable the US Military to fight effectively in an urban environment while minimizing collateral damage

US military operations are increasingly conducted within urban environments and with these operations come the risk of increasing the number of civilian casualties and infrastructure damage. The use of non-lethal weaponry, such as directed-energy weapons, is one method for minimizing collateral damage. This method enables US military forces to effectively fight within urban environments through force escalation capabilities. Using a series of historical examples and future scenarios for urban warfare, this article highlights deficiencies affecting military capabilities in military urban operations, addresses the consequences of collateral damage, assesses the effectiveness of directed-energy weapons in military urban operations and encourages further funding, research and integration of non-lethal weaponry, such as directed-energy weapons, within the US military.     

Did the Panamanian Defense Forces conduct infiltration operations at the Arraijan Tank Farm in 1988?

This article reviews the circumstances surrounding a relatively obscure and almost forgotten US Marine Corps and Army security enhancement operation undertaken in Panama that commenced in early April of 1988. Marines were sent to Panama to protect oil and ammunition storage facilities from potential saboteurs. By April 1989 they had reported sighting armed, uniformed intruders on at least 43 occasions and receiving gunfire or discharging their own weapons during 16 incidents. Yet despite the repeated barrages of small arms fire over the course of a year, they failed to recover enemy ammunition, bodies or body parts and their own equipment and positions displayed no signs of suffering from hostile fire. This article analyzes the events from the point of view of a veteran of the operation and highlights the role that psychological operations may have played in generating the situation.     

The missing dimension: IDF special operations forces and strategy in the Second Lebanon War

In the course of the 2006 Lebanon War the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) employed special operations forces (SOF) for raids against Hizb'allah's command and control structure. This article argues that a faulty conceptualization of the value of special operations and misguided expectations determined by the new IDF concept of operations impacted adversely on the employment of SOF for this kind of operations. Both these elements contributed in turn to substantially degrade SOF performance in the context of the war.     

美军新版《太空作战》联合条令的主要内容、变化及分析

2013年5月29日,美军参联会发布新版《太空作战》联合条令。文章对新版条令的主要内容进行了概括,对新、旧版本条令的差异进行了分析研究。     

基本作战样式下航母编队兵力配置方法

航母编队兵力配置是航母编队作战运用的基础内容,从作战任务的角度来研究航母编队兵力配置问题。航母编队基本作战样式可分为对空作战、对海作战、对潜作战和对岸作战4种,航母编队通过基本作战样式的组合来达成作战任务。基于每种作战样式下航母编队兵力执行的作战任务,确定了兵力配置的原则和方法。为研究航母编队兵力配置问题提供了一种可借鉴的思路。     

基于仿真技术的两栖装甲装备作战效能评估方法

两栖作战是基于信息系统的体系与体系的对抗。两栖作战对抗系统是典型的复杂适应系统。基于复杂适应系统理论和多Agent建模方法的作战效能评估方法,在掌握装备性能参数基础上,以具体作战环境和一定兵力编成为背景进行作战模拟,能够反映武器系统的诸属性在作战全过程的体现和在不同外界条件下作战效能的差别,可为两栖装甲装备研制、作战使用及战术训练、战法研究提供参考。     

63A式水陆坦克海上射击优化方法

着眼于63A式水陆坦克海上射击人-机-环境系统的优化,以提高水陆坦克海上射击效能,增强两栖机械化部队渡海登岛作战能力为目的,从缩小坦克射击误差、优化弹药使用与控制、实时进行射击修正、科学确定开火距离、充分发挥单车整体威力等5个层次方面,采用定量分析与定性分析相结合的方法,以未来两栖机械化部队渡海登岛作战为背景,系统阐述并提出了63A式水陆坦克海上射击优化的具体方法.