Optimizing submarine berthing with a persistence incentive

Submarine berthing plans reserve mooring locations for inbound U.S. Navy nuclear submarines prior to their port entrance. Once in port, submarines may be shifted to different berthing locations to allow them to better receive services they require or to make way for other shifted vessels. However, submarine berth shifting is expensive, labor intensive, and potentially hazardous. This article presents an optimization model for submarine berth planning and demonstrates it with Naval Submarine Base, San Diego. After a berthing plan has been approved and published, changed requests for services, delays, and early arrival of inbound submarines are routine events, requiring frequent revisions. To encourage trust in the planning process, the effect on the solution of revisions in the input is kept small by incorporating a persistence incentive in the optimization model. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 44: 301–318, 1997.     

基于遗传算法舰船装载码头配置方案优化

两栖输送舰船码头装载过程中,如何科学配置装载码头,使得整个装载任务完成时间最短是部队制定装载方案需要解决的重要难题。依据码头装载配置特点和要求,运用军事运筹学多目标规划理论构建装载码头配置规划模型,并运用遗传算法理论和计算机编程工具实现码头配置规划模型的优化解算。从而提高了部队两栖输送舰船码头装载方案制定的科学性和时效性。     

Using container inspection history to improve interdiction logistics for illicit nuclear materials

Strengthening the United States' ability to prevent adversaries from smuggling nuclear materials into the country is a vital and ongoing issue. The prospect of additional countries, such as Iran, obtaining the know‐how and equipment to produce these special nuclear materials in the near future underscores the need for efficient and effective inspection policies at ports and border crossings. In addition, the reduction of defense and homeland security budgets in recent years has made it increasingly important to accomplish the interdiction mission with fewer funds. Addressing these complications, in this article, we present a novel two‐port interdiction model. We propose using prior inspection data as a low‐cost way of increasing overall interdiction performance. We provide insights into two primary questions: first, how should a decision maker at a domestic port use detection data from the foreign port to improve the overall detection capability? Second, what are potential limitations to the usefulness of prior inspection data—is it possible that using prior data actually harms decision making at the domestic port? We find that a boundary curve policy (BCP) that takes into account both foreign and domestic inspection data can provide a significant improvement in detection probability. This BCP also proves to be surprisingly robust, even if adversaries are able to infiltrate shipments during transit. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 60: 433‐448, 2013     

Being there: US Navy organisational culture and the forward presence debate

ABSTRACT

This article argues that the US Navy’s roles (which have historically been bifurcated between warfighting and political use of force) manifest in its organisational culture as two different concepts of war: the US Navy as diplomatic actor and the US Navy as warfighting force. The conflict between these different concepts of war can be seen in the current debate about the definition and function of presence. The debate about presence is not just theoretical, but represents a deep and enduring conflict within the Navy as an organisation about its concept of war. Since the end of WWII, the Navy has been designing its fleet architecture according to a Mahanian concept of war, despite the preponderance of non-lethal missions and activities. The result is a mismatch between platforms and tasks.     

海战场态势分析与评估方法

信息融合是海军作战指挥系统情报处理的一个必不可少的环节,对融合后的海战场综合态势进行分析和评估是为信息融合体系提高了一个重要层次.海战场态势分析与评估在现代信息战中将具有越来越重要的作用,但目前海战场态势分析和评估的方法还很不成熟,本文试图从海战场态势分析与评估在信息融合中的作用,以海战场态势分析与评估处理融合数据流程为依据,提出海战场态势分析与评估的基本方法,起到一个抛砖引玉的作用.     

Determination of the optimal investment in end products and repair resources

This paper demonstrates how to determine the minimal cost combination of end products and repair service capability in order to maintain a given level of operating end products. It is shown that the general rule for optimal resource allocation requires simply that the absolute value of the marginal factor cost of repair services divided by the marginal factor cost of end products be equal to the arrival rate of end products to repair. The model is applied to the problem of determining the resources required to support an operating level of Navy F-4 aircraft.     

Bringing Balancing Back In: Britain's Targeted Balancing, 1936–1939

This article challenges the conventional wisdom that Neville Chamberlain rejected the British tradition of balance of power in the 1930s. In contrast to balance of power and balance of threat theories, states do not balance against aggregate or net shifts in power. Instead, leaders define threats based on particular elements of a foreign state's power. The import is that different components of power of a foreign state are more or less threatening and aggregate shifts in power alone may not provoke counterbalancing behavior. In the 1930s, Britain balanced against the most threatening components of power: the German Luftwaffe and the threat of a knock-out air assault against the homeland, Japan's Imperial Navy and its threat to Britain's commercial trade routes and the Dominions in East Asia, and the Italian Navy and the threat to Britain's line of communication through the Mediterranean Sea to India and Asia. Given Britain's difficult financial circumstances, all other components of power, such as the army and the land components of power of Germany, Japan, and Italy were ranked as secondary in terms of its rearmament priorities. Thus, London was able to narrow the gap with Berlin in specific components of power of strategic importance such as aircraft production or to exceed Germany in other areas such as the Royal Navy and its battlefleet.     

Impact of an all volunteer force upon the navy in the 1972-1973 timeframe

This paper develops estimates of true volunteer levels for 1972 and 1973, based on experience gained through 1970 draft lottery data. The paper also formulates estimates of the qualitative characteristics of a 1972-1973 Navy volunteer force, and establishes a relationship between rate of volunteerism and military pay. Utilizing estimates generated in the paper, Navy military personnel budget requirements for FY '72 and '73 are presented.     

Mind over matter? Multinational naval interoperability during Operation Iraqi Freedom

ABSTRACT

The increasing frequency of multinational operations has heightened the importance of interoperability. While human and cultural factors are only two pieces of the interoperability jigsaw they are of enduring significance. The cohesiveness of the relationship amongst the Royal Australian Navy, the Royal Navy and the United States Navy during the 2003 Iraq War was underpinned by high levels of perceptive interoperability, which manifested itself in effective working relationships. That conflict demonstrated that while historical ties provided a foundation for cooperation, a number of multinational initiatives were undertaken to further enhance interoperability. This article addresses how such a high level of perceptive interoperability was achieved by examining the conduct of multinational exercises, the importance of personnel exchanges and the role of liaison officers, before considering the effect it had on the conduct of operations. The Iraq War demonstrated that cultural factors are at least as important as other facets of interoperability.     

The French navy and the Algerian war

The French Navy's part in the Algerian War has been overlooked, but was vitally important. It took two main forms. The first, and primary, mission was to cut off the Algerian nationalists from outside support by a rigorous coastal blockade. Maritime surveillance in the Mediterranean and along the Algerian littoral achieved this. Inshore patrol vessels, supported by larger warships, sealed the routes by which the nationalists sought to infiltrate weapons and newly-trained guerrilla fighters from camps and arms dumps in Tunisia and Morocco. The French Navy intercepted cargo ships that sailed from East Bloc ports, attempting to smuggle arms into the Algerian nationalists. The most celebrated successes were the seizures of the Athos, Slovenija and Lidice in 1958–59. The Navy's second mission involved the deployment ashore, from April 1956, of the marine infantry (the demibrigade of Fusiliers-Marins). These units participated in the sweeps by French army units and engaged insurgent bands. They also garrisoned and protected installations, port facilities and transport networks in Algeria's coastal hinterland.     

Quay crane scheduling at container terminals to minimize the maximum relative tardiness of vessel departures

In this paper, we study the problem of scheduling quay cranes (QCs) at container terminals where incoming vessels have different ready times. The objective is to minimize the maximum relative tardiness of vessel departures. The problem can be formulated as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model of large size that is difficult to solve directly. We propose a heuristic decomposition approach to breakdown the problem into two smaller, linked models, the vessel‐level and the berth‐level models. With the same berth‐level model, two heuristic methods are developed using different vessel‐level models. Computational experiments show that the proposed approach is effective and efficient. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2006     

国外典型两栖舰作战指挥控制系统分析

美国海军的两栖舰种类全、性能先进,法国海军的“西北风”级两栖攻击舰是世界上较典型的一型两栖舰。本文以美国和法国海军的典型两栖舰为对象,分析了这些舰上可开设的作战指挥机构以及为支持这些作战指挥机构开设而配装的作战指挥控制系统情况,梳理了配装的这些作战指挥控制系统具有的主要功能,从发展方式、装备形态和配置方法等方面探析了国外两栖舰作战指挥控制系统的发展特点与启示,以期为我海军两栖舰作战指挥控制系统发展建设提供借鉴和参考。     

The Royal Navy's Polaris lobby, 1955–62

This article examines the background to the Royal Navy's acquisition of Polaris. The conventional wisdom is that the Navy had little interest in Polaris, which was foisted on it upon the cancellation of Skybolt. Extensive use of files in the Public Record Office is made to mount the contrary argument, that the Admiralty had been interested in the submarine-launched ballistic missile since at least 1955, that there was widespread support for it among the Naval Staff, that a substantial amount of preparatory work was undertaken with the assistance of the US Navy, and that the naval staff were prepared to accept the deterrent role. Naval tactics – to play a waiting game and feign indifference – have contributed to the establishment of the orthodox interpretation, as has the view that the Navy was handicapped by the lack of a body of doctrine within which the deterrent role could be accommodated. The article shows that the orthodox account cannot be sustained by the evidence, which points to a naval triumph in terms of Whitehall politics and inter-service competition.     

Gorshkov's Gambit

This article is a portrait of Admiral Sergei Gorshkov, commander of the Soviet Navy for almost three decades, from 1956–85. The author, a retired US Navy admiral with a Harvard PhD in Russian studies who served as both defense and naval attaché in Moscow, draws on numerous face-to-face interactions with Gorshkov. He also explores Gorshkov's memoirs that were published recently in Russia but have not appeared in an English translation. The paper is not only a first-hand account of an important historical figure, but also a window into the world of military-to-military diplomacy and intelligence during the Cold War.     

Recruiters,advertising, and navy enlistments

Regression analysis is used to estimate the effects on Navy enlistments of recruiters, advertising, unemployment and other factors. In measuring the effects of these factors on enlistments, changes in both the demand for and supply of enlistments are taken into account. Advertising is treated as a capital investment; its effect is estimated using a maximum likelihood technique that was developed for measuring the effects of capital investments. We find strong evidence that recruiters and unemployment increase enlistments. Advertising also seems to increase enlistments, but its effect is highly uncertain. The results suggest that increases in recruiting resources would have eliminated the enlistment shortfalls experienced by the Navy in FY 1978–79.     

Investigating the Desirability of Navy Aircraft Service Life Extension Programs

Building on prior work on optimal replacement of aging aircraft, this paper presents three methodologies to evaluate prospective aviation Service Life Extension Programs (SLEPs) and applies these methodologies to US Navy F/A-18E/F data. While considerable uncertainty remains as to the values of key parameters (e.g. the cost of F/A-18E/F SLEPs), the preponderance of the evidence available at this juncture favors undertaking SLEPs on F/A-18E/Fs rather than replacing them with new Joint Strike Fighters.     

Offensive defence in the Warsaw pact: Reinterpreting military doctrine

This essay examines the key role played by intelligence and deception in the interactive process of British and German preparations in the 1930s for U‐boat warfare. It argues that the Royal Navy (RN) employed the general perception of ASDIC (sonar) as an ‘antidote’ to the submarine to mislead potential foes about the state of its anti‐submarine defences. This British campaign of deception had a discernible impact. Before the outbreak of World War II, the German Navy failed to discover the realities behind ASDIC's image, and this intelligence failure helped to shape U‐boat policy.     

海军诸兵种综合战术训练仿真系统构建研究

如何构建诸军兵种综合战术训练仿真系统,是当前全军训练仿真领域内的研究热点。基于HLA技术框架及分层式RTI,搭建了海军诸兵种综合战术训练仿真系统的体系结构。并采用面向对象的建模与仿真方法,提出了系统公共参考FOM模型的设计思路,定义了实体类、交互类及路径空间,有效规范并减少了系统间网络传输的数据流量。最后,给出了系统仿真实现的流程图和一个仿真实例。实践证明,使用HLA仿真框架实现的海军诸兵种综合战术训练仿真系统能够满足当前海军战术训练的需求。     

Scheduling target illuminators in naval battle-group anti-air warfare

We schedule a set of illuminators (homing devices) to strike a set of targets using surface-to-air missiles in a naval battle. The task is viewed as a production floor shop scheduling problem of minimizing the total weighted flow time, subject to time-window job availability and machine downtime side constraints. A simple algorithm based on solving assignment problems is developed for the case when all the job processing times are equal and the data are all integer. For the general case of scheduling jobs with unequal processing times, we develop two alternate formulations and analyze their relative strengths by comparing their respective linear programming relaxations. We select the better formulation in this comparison and exploit its special structures to develop several effective heuristic algorithms that provide good-quality solutions in real time; this is an essential element for use by the Navy. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.