‘Immediate redress’: USS Potomac and the pirates of Quallah Batoo

Maritime interests in the twenty-first century are not immune to the growing number of irregular challenges and hybrid threats that have come to dominate land warfare. In order to better understand these challenges a study of naval history can help provide a vital foundation. In the early 1830s the United States Navy dispatched the frigate USS Potomac to Sumatra to investigate a pirate attack on the spice trader Friendship. Potomac's crew of sailors and Marines conducted a landing at the village Quallah Batoo and fought a pitched battle. As the navies of the world approach naval irregular warfare in the new century, studying past examples like Potomac's mission can help illuminate the principles of successful naval irregular warfare.     

A note on a modified block replacement policy for units with increasing marginal running costs

The model for a modified block replacement policy (MBRP) is extended to include running costs. An illustrative example is worked out for the case when item life is exponentially distributed and marginal running cost per unit time increases linearly with the age of the item.     

Least-absolute-value estimators for one-way and two-way tables

This paper concerns itself with the problem of estimating the parameters of one-way and two-way classification models by minimization of the sum of the absolute deviations of the regression function from the observed points. The one-way model reduces to obtaining a set of medians from which optimal parameters can be obtained by simple arithmetic manipulations. The two-way model is transformed into a specially structured linear programming problem, and two algorithms are presented to solve this problem. The occurrence of alternative optimal solutions in both models is discussed, and numerical examples are presented.     

Localization of optimal strategies in certain games

Assume the payoffs of a matrix game are concave in the index of the maximizing player. That player is shown to have an optimal strategy which uses at most two consecutive pure strategies, identifiable through approximate solution of a related continuous game. Generalizations are given, and the results are applied to a motivating hidden-target model due to Shapley. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The salvo combat model with area fire

This article analyzes versions of the salvo model of missile combat where area fire is used by one or both sides in a battle. Although these models share some properties with the area fire Lanchester model and the aimed fire salvo model, they also display some interesting differences, especially over the course of several salvos. Although the relative size of each force is important with aimed fire, with area fire, it is the absolute size that matters. Similarly, although aimed fire exhibits square law behavior, area fire shows approximately linear behavior. When one side uses area fire and the other uses aimed fire, the model displays a mix of square and linear law behavior. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 60: 652–660, 2013     

Eisenhower,science and the nuclear test Ban Debate 1953–56

Though historians debate whether Eisenhower seriously pursued a nuclear test ban agreement at the close of his presidency, few have closely examined his consideration of the issue during his first term in office. Publicly, his administration ridiculed Democratic presidential candidate Adlai E. Stevenson's highly publicized test ban proposal in 1956. In fact, Eisenhower's private inclination to ban testing antedated Stevenson's campaign proposal by two years. A review of the administration's techniques of countering Stevenson's test ban proposal reveals the use of heated rhetoric, clever deception, and outright lies to manipulate public understanding of the test issue and to conceal the depth of Eisenhower's own sincere desire to limit, or even cease, tests.