Multilateral defense cooperation in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region: Tentative steps toward a regional NATO?

Some U.S. military leaders have asserted that the United States, Japan, Australia, and India and the Republic of Korea are developing multilateral defense cooperation to deter aggression and uphold norms much like North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has in Europe. Frequent military exercises and China’s threats to freedom of navigation (FoN) and North Korea’s nuclear missiles comprise the motive force for such cooperation. However, cooperation thus far has been trilateral and minimal, given divergent national interests and dispersed geopolitical locations. Cooperation among Japan, Republic of Korea (ROK), and the United States is increasing given the threat, but ROK’s public opinion is divided about Japan. Australia, Japan, and India have increased cooperation with the United States but are reluctant to conduct FoN operations with the United States to challenge China’s expansionism in the South China Sea. If China becomes more aggressive and blocks FoN or seizes territory, development toward an Asian NATO is possible.     

Adjacency‐based local top‐down search method for finding maximal efficient faces in multiple objective linear programming

It is well‐known that the efficient set of a multiobjective linear programming (MOLP) problem can be represented as a union of the maximal efficient faces of the feasible region. In this paper, we propose a method for finding all maximal efficient faces for an MOLP. The new method is based on a condition that all efficient vertices (short for the efficient extreme points and rays) for the MOLP have been found and it relies on the adjacency, affine independence and convexity results of efficient sets. The method uses a local top‐down search strategy to determine maximal efficient faces incident to every efficient vertex for finding maximal efficient faces of an MOLP problem. To our knowledge, the proposed method is the first top‐down search method that uses the adjacency property of the efficient set to find all maximal efficient faces. We discuss this and other advantages and disadvantages of the algorithm. We also discuss some computational experience we have had with our computer code for implementing the algorithm. This computational experience involved solving several MOLP problems with the code.     

Engineering costs and customer costs in designing product support

Product support encompasses activities undertaken by durable goods producers to ensure their customers the continued use of the product. Examples of product support elements include after the sale activities such as providing repair services and warranty programs, as well as all the activities undertaken at the design and production stage to improve the reliability of products before they reach the market. The implications of incorporating customer costs while designing product support packages are the concern of this study. We study how the parameters of support package impact the costs incurred by customers and provide insights about selecting appropriate levels of product support. We show that the engineering orientation of maximizing the product's availability ignores market characteristics, and results in a mismatch between the corporation's support package and the customer's needs. The research is intended to be a step in understanding the interaction between design engineering parameters and customer's costs. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

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.     

Properties of a three-dimensional estimator

A large-scale simulation was conducted to investigate the statistical properties and the suitability of an estimator that estimates the coordinates of a three-dimensional source, according to the angles at which several observers view the source. The estimator uses a heuristical averaging method of estimates obtained from the solution of six two-dimensional problems that utilize line-to-point transformations. The estimator was found to be approximately unbiased with low standard deviations for normal error distributions. An effective and easy-to-use forecasting formula was developed to forecast the parameters of the distributions of the estimates. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Improvement of VIS and IR camouflage properties by impregnating cotton fabric with PVB/IF-WS2

In order to examine the possibility to improve its camouflage properties standard cotton fabric with camouflage print was impregnated with poly(vinyl butyral), PVB and fullerene-like nanoparticles of tungsten disulfide, PVB/IF-WS₂. FTIR analysis excluded any possible chemical interaction of IF-WS₂ with PVB and the fabric. The camouflage behavior of the impregnated fabric has been examined firstly in the VIS part of the spectrum. Diffuse reflection, specular gloss and color coordinates were measured for three different shades (black, brown and dark green). Thermal imaging was applied to examine the camouflage abilities of this impregnation in IR part of the spectrum. The obtained results show that PVB/IF-WS₂ impregnation system induced enhacement of the materials camouflage properties, i.e. that IF-WS₂ have a positive effect on spectrophotometric characteristics of the fabric.     

Real-time prediction of projectile penetration to laminates by training machine learning models withfinite element solver as the trainer

Studies on ballistic penetration to laminates is complicated, but important for design effective protection of structures. Experimental means of study is expensive and can often be dangerous. Numerical simu-lation has been an excellent supplement, but the computation is time-consuming. Main aim of this thesis was to develop and test an effective tool for real-time prediction of projectile penetrations to laminates by training a neural network and a decision tree regression model. A large number of finite element models were developed;the residual velocities of projectiles fromfinite element simulations were used as the target data and processed to produce sufficient number of training samples. Study focused on steel 4340tpolyurea laminates with various configurations. Four different 3D shapes of the projectiles were modeled and used in the training. The trained neural network and decision tree model was tested using independently generated test samples using finite element models. The predicted projectile velocity values using the trained machine learning models are then compared with thefinite element simulation to verify the effectiveness of the models. Additionally, both models were trained using a published experimental data of projectile impacts to predict residual velocity of projectiles for the unseen samples. Performance of both the models was evaluated and compared. Models trained with Finite element simulation data samples were found capable to give more accurate predication, compared to the models trained with experimental data, becausefinite element modeling can generate much larger training set, and thus finite element solvers can serve as an excellent teacher. This study also showed that neural network model performs better with small experimental dataset compared to decision tree regression model.     

The Somali National Army: an assessment

To engage properly with the Somali National Army, to understand it in the hope of improving stability and the lives of over 12 million Somalis, good basic information on its composition and characteristics is necessary. Authoritative accounts on the subject have been scarce for over 25 years. This account seeks to detail the army’s dispositions across southern Somalia, and, more importantly, the brigades’ clan compositions and linkages. Clan ties supersede loyalties to the central government. The army as it stands is a collection of former militias which suffer from ill-discipline and commit crime along with greater atrocities. Estimates of numbers are unreliable, but there might be 13,000 or more fighters in six brigades in the Mogadishu area and five beyond.