Optimal motion planning in rapid‐fire combat situations with attacker uncertainty

This article provides a modeling framework for quantifying cost and optimizing motion plans in combat situations with rapid weapon fire, multiple agents, and attacker uncertainty characterized by uncertain parameters. Recent developments in numerical optimal control enable the efficient computation of numerical solutions for optimization problems with multiple agents, nonlinear dynamics, and a broad class of objectives. This facilitates the application of more realistic, equipment‐based combat models, which track both more realistic models, which track both agent motion and dynamic equipment capabilities. We present such a framework, along with a described algorithm for finding numerical solutions, and a numerical example.     

A two-phase procedure for allotting geostationary orbital locations to communications satellites

We consider the problem of allotting locations in the geostationary orbit to communication satellites, subject to angle of elevation and electromagnetic interference constraints. An optimization framework is used as a means of finding feasible allotment plans. Specifically, we present a two-phase solution procedure for the satellite location problem (SLP). The objective in SLP is to allot geostationary orbital locations to satellites so as to minimize the sum of the absolute differences between the locations prescribed for the satellites and corresponding specified desired locations. We describe two heuristics, an ordering procedure and a k-permutation algorithm, that are used in tandem to find solutions to SLP. Solutions to a worldwide example problem with 183 satellites serving 208 service areas are summarized.     

Gendered divisions of military labour in the British armed forces

This paper examines statistical data on the employment of women in the British armed forces. It reviews some of the issues shaping debates about women’s military employment, in order to establish the on-going significance of the topic. It looks at patterns of female military employment across the three services, and places discussion of this in the context of observations about gendered divisions of labour in the wider UK labour market. It examines data for the gendered divisions of labour within different corps, branches and occupational groups within each of the three armed services, and looks at gender patterns across ranks. It concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for both policy and conceptual work on women’s military participation.     

Bourdieu’s capital and insurgent group resilience:a field-theoretic approach to the polisario front

The conflict between the rebel group, the Polisario Front, and the Kingdom of Morocco is nearing its 43rd year. Though under-reported, the conflict itself garners attention for the resilience – some would say tenacity – of the ethnically Sahrawi Polisario Front. Despite shifting regional and international politics and the nearly 150,000 Sahrawi refugees waiting in nearby Algerian camps, the rebel group has survived. What explains its resilience? This article uses Bourdieu’s ‘forms of capital’ to understand the Polisario Front’s persistence. Based on field research in Algeria, Western Sahara, and the United States, it finds that social, cultural, symbolic, and economic capital may provide an explanation.