Attrition models of the Ardennes campaign

This paper revisits the modeling by Bracken [3] of the Ardennes campaign of World War II using the Lanchester equations. It revises and extends that analysis in a number of ways: (1) It more accurately fits the model parameters using linear regression; (2) it considers the data from the entire campaign; and (3) it adds in air sortie data. In contrast to previous results, it concludes by showing that neither the Lanchester linear or Lanchester square laws fit the data. A new form of the Lanchester equations emerges with a physical interpretation. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 45: 1–22, 1998     

美军“多域战”概念探析

"多域战"概念由美陆军率先提出,是美军在联合作战概念上的又一次创新。"多域战"是美陆军力图拓展多领域作战能力、美军反制"反介入/区域拒止"威胁和打造在未来高强度对抗战争中的新优势的有力手段。"多域战"概念具有作战领域多维扩展、要素体系高度融合、指挥体制扁平灵活、军队编制精简多能和技术装备革新整合的特点。近年来,美军不断推动"多域战"的完善,为其发展提供了理论支撑、科技支撑、实践支撑和智力支撑。美军"多域战"概念的实施前景挑战与机遇并存。     

How to rethink war: Conceptual Innovation and AirLand Battle Doctrine1

This article examines the role of ideas in US Army innovation after the Vietnam War. It challenges the view that failure, changes in the strategic environment or technology are the sole drivers of military innovation and analyses the role of ideas and identity in the army's development of AirLand battle doctrine. It highlights how the reform in ideas led to a ‘re-conception’ of the strategic environment, the nature and dynamics of warfare and a change in self-understanding. The organisational reforms embodied these ideas and led to a new way of war practised in the first Gulf War.     

舰船战斗恢复力的设计要求和后勤要求

提出了舰船战斗恢复力的概念,简要概述了舰船战斗恢复力的设计要求与后勤要求,并介绍了舰船战斗恢复力量化的设想。     

Knowledge-oriented modeling for influencing factors of battle damage in military industrial logistics: An integrated method

Modeling influencing factors of battle damage is one of essential works in implementing military industrial logistics simulation to explore battle damage laws knowledge. However, one of key challenges in designing the simulation system could be how to reasonably determine simulation model input and build a bridge to link battle damage model and battle damage laws knowledge. In this paper, we propose a novel knowledge-oriented modeling method for influencing factors of battle damage in military industrial logistics, integrating conceptual analysis, conceptual modeling, quantitative modeling and simulation implementation. We conceptualize influencing factors of battle damage by using the principle of hierarchical decomposition, thus classifying the related battle damage knowledge logically. Then, we construct the conceptual model of influencing factors of battle damage by using Entity-Relationship approach, thus describing their interactions reasonably. Subsequently, we extract the important influencing factors by using social network analysis, thus evaluating their importance quantitatively and further clarifying the elements of simulation. Finally, we develop an agent-based military industry logistics simulation system by taking the modeling results on influencing factors of battle damage as simulation model input, and obtain simulation model output, i.e., new battle damage laws knowledge, thus verifying feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. The results show that this method can be used to support human decision-making and action.     

The Zimbabwe people’s revolutionary army military operations in Makonde district and the attack on Salisbury’s fuel storage tanks, 1965-1979

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army operations in Mashonaland West province with particular reference to Makonde District during the country’s war of liberation. Despite the growing literature on ZAPU and ZPRA in Zimbabwe’s war of liberation there is little that has been written concerning the operations of ZPRA guerrillas in Mashonaland provinces. Guided by evidence drawn from secondary and primary sources the article further asserts that ZPRA adopted a four pronged strategy in Makonde District. This strategy in part was hinged on the politicization of the population on the one hand and annihilation of the enemy forces, attrition and manoeuvre warfare on the other. Again, the article argues that ZPRA guerrillas attempted to capture Salisbury (Harare) in order to conquer the Rhodesian Security Forces’ centre of gravity. It was hoped that the capture of the capital city would Makoni District was of strategic significance to the conduct of ZPRA operations and arguably hastened Ian Smith’s decision to attend the Lancaster House Conference negotiations that led to the independence of Zimbabwe in 1980.     

装备战损等级评定方法研究

在对战场抢修力量部署进行思考的基础上,分析了战损等级评定影响因素,研究了兼顾装备损伤程度与战场抢修力量设置的战损等级评定方法。从而为装备战场抢修任务分工,以及对损伤装备的处理决断提供了依据,并为开展广泛深入的战损等级评定研究奠定了基础。     

William Siborne’s Second Waterloo Model: New Discoveries Emerging from Conservation

In 2015, the second model of the battlefield of Waterloo by William Siborne was conserved in preparation for an exhibition commemorating the bicentenary of the battle. Conservation of the model provided an opportunity to conduct thorough examination, analysis and documentation of this complex work of art. The conservation and documentation of the model is described along with new discoveries emerging from analysis of materials.     

红外成像型反舰导弹作战环境仿真研究

红外成像型反舰导弹的作战主要包括:被攻击的舰船目标,海水、天空背景,以及光照和大气中的自然干扰和可能遇到的人为干扰———红外诱饵弹、红外烟幕弹等。对作战环境的成像仿真是红外成像型反舰导弹效能评估的一个重要内容。为了使仿真达到实时、动态和交互的效果,讨论了一种运用OpenGL编程实现三维动画的仿真方法。     

Fitting Lanchester equations to the battles of Kursk and Ardennes

Lanchester equations and their extensions are widely used to calculate attrition in models of warfare. This paper examines how Lanchester models fit detailed daily data on the battles of Kursk and Ardennes. The data on Kursk, often called the greatest tank battle in history, was only recently made available. A new approach is used to find the optimal parameter values and gain an understanding of how well various parameter combinations explain the battles. It turns out that a variety of Lanchester models fit the data about as well. This explains why previous studies on Ardennes, using different minimization techniques and data formulations, have found disparate optimal fits. We also find that none of the basic Lanchester laws (i.e., square, linear, and logarithmic) fit the data particularly well or consistently perform better than the others. This means that it does not matter which of these laws you use, for with the right coefficients you will get about the same result. Furthermore, no constant attrition coefficient Lanchester law fits very well. The failure to find a good‐fitting Lanchester model suggests that it may be beneficial to look for new ways to model highly aggregated attrition. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2004.