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.     

Country survey XVI the defence sector in the economy of a declining superpower: Soviet Union and Russia, 1965-2001

The Soviet Union was able to develop a large military-industrial complex and become the world's second superpower despite deficiencies in its centrally planned economy because defence was given high priority status and special planning, rationing and administrative mechanisms were used to attain national security objectives. However, in the period 1976-85 the effectiveness of priority protection diminished and defence institutions experienced more of the problems typical of the shortage economic system. The heavy defence burden also created growing difficulties for the civilian economy. The attempts by the Gorbachev government to reform the defence sector and improve defence-economic relationships during perestroika (1985-91) uniformly failed. For most of the transition period, the Russian military-industrial complex has been adversely affected by its low priority status, cuts in defence spending, instability of the hybrid politico-economic system, and negative growth of the economy. The armed forces and defence industry have been reduced in size and their outputs of military services and equipment have fallen to low levels. Nevertheless, the Russian armed forces still have over one million troops, significant stocks of sophisticated conventional weapons, and a large nuclear arsenal. The government of President Putin has raised the priority of the defence sector, increased real defence spending, and adopted ambitious plans to revive Russian military power. It is likely, though, that tight resource constraints will hamper efforts to reform the armed forces and to upgrade weapons. By 2010 Russia will be an important, but not dominant, military power in Eurasia.     

The future of European defence policy: An economic perspective

European defence policy has been dominated by politics. This paper shows how economic principles can be used to derive guidelines for the formulation of European defence policy. The inefficiencies of the EU's existing defence arrangements are identified. It is shown that there is scope for efficiency improvements in the EU's Armed Forces and its defence industries.     

GLOBALIZING REAGAN'S INF TREATY

When it was concluded more than a quarter century ago, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union was hailed as a disarmament watershed, eliminating entire classes of nuclear missiles from the arsenals of the arms-racing Cold War superpowers. Over the intervening decades, there have been repeated calls to convert this legacy treaty into a new international norm against nuclear and missile proliferation by broadening it into a global prohibition on ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. Indeed, variations on this proposal have been knocking around for so long and with so little success that the entire concept has come to be dismissed by many knowledgeable insiders as something of a farce. Looking beyond its inauspicious pedigree, however, this viewpoint suggests that the time is opportune for Washington to give the idea a fresh look. Drawing on a detailed review of the history of “Global INF” and an analysis of the contemporary context, the author recommends that the Obama administration consider a simple declaratory approach that promises modest initial benefits, avoids previous and foreseeable pitfalls, and plausibly lays a solid foundation for achieving significant long-term progress.     

基于抽象隐马尔可夫模型的CGF路径规划识别

路径规划识别是一种以位置信息为输入的在线识别。为了使CGF能在仿真中识别对手的路径和终点目标,在分析路径规划层次的基础上引入了抽象隐马尔可夫模型的识别框架。针对标准模型在对手更改终点目标和自上而下规划时无法识别的问题,提出了一种顶层策略可变的抽象隐马尔可夫模型。为模型的顶层策略增加初始分布和策略终止变量,更改了策略终止变量间的依赖关系,使下层策略能被强制终止。给出了改进后DBN结构,并通过推导条件概率更新和RB变量抽样流程实现了模型的近似推理。仿真实验表明,改进模型能准确识别给定环境下的各类典型航迹,不仅在终点目标不变时能较好地维持标准模型的识别准确率,在提供足够的观测数据后还能很好地解决变目标识别问题。     

潜艇CGF规避反潜航空兵行为建模

对战场态势的不完全观测是潜艇作战的重要特点,充分利用不完全观测信息,提高潜艇对抗决策的合理性是设计潜艇CGF的核心问题。针对潜艇作战特点,提出了潜艇自防御行为模型框架,并利用多Agent不确定场景建模技术,建立了基于POMDP的规避反潜航空兵行为模型,最后进行了仿真验证。结果表明,该模型具有较强的可行性。     

弘扬伟大建党精神奋进世界一流征程

以“坚持真理、坚守理想,践行初心、担当使命,不怕牺牲、英勇斗争,对党忠诚、不负人民”为内涵的伟大建党精神,是中国共产党的精神之源。这一精神内涵丰富、意境深远,具有鲜明的理论特征和时代价值,不仅指导了过去一百年中国共产党人带领全中国人民推进革命、建设、改革的伟大实践,更是对中华民族实现第二个百年奋斗目标具有深远的指导意义。只有深刻认识和把握伟大建党精神的科学内涵,才能战胜前进道路上的一切艰难险阻,继续谦虚谨慎、戒骄戒躁,继续艰苦奋斗、锐意进取,锲而不舍把建设世界一流军队的伟大事业推向新征程。     

新时期警营文化工作应着力解决好“四多四少”的问题

警营文化工作是部队精神文明和政治工作的重要内容,也是提高部队凝聚力和战斗力的强大“助推器”。本文分析了当前部队基层文化工作中存在的“四多四少”现象,并就如何着眼问题、解决矛盾,推进警营文化建设健康有序地发展提出了思考。     

国外军用直升机的改进与发展

军用直升机特别是武装直升机在现代战争中的突袭和多功能作用引起了防空作战的广泛关注。概述了重型武装直升机Ａｐａｃｈｅ 的多种改进,讨论了军用直升机的发展趋势。