Initiating insurgencies abroad: French plans to ‘chouannise’ Britain and Ireland, 1793–1798

Secret French plans to launch guerrilla-style raids on the British Isles devised in the spring of 1796 were referred to as ‘chouanneries’. The name and concept behind these small-war operations were modelled on the irregular tactics used by the Chouan rebels in the Vendée, which the French state army had brutally quashed, but some wished to transfer into their institutional practice. Part of France's ongoing military strategy in the war against Britain, which included fomenting insurrection in Ireland, these irregular operations were to be manned partially by pardoned deserters and released convicts and prisoners of war. Of these, only Tate's brief invasion of Wales in 1797 was realised, but the surviving plans provide insightful historical lessons into an Anglophobic mindset shared by a small network of practitioners and policy deciders on the effectiveness of such shock and awe tactics. Largely motivated by the desire to take revenge for Britain's support of counter-revolutionaries in the Vendée, these plans could more aptly be referred to as counter-‘chouanneries’.     

惯组动态测试台误差分析及附加运动补偿算法

为了完成惯组的高精度、大动态测试任务,基于Gough-Stewart平台设计了电动六自由度惯组动态测试台。建立了系统的误差模型并分析了电动缸长度误差对系统精度的影响,分析了电动缸在惯组动态测试台运动过程中产生的被动螺旋附加运动,并对该运动补偿算法进行了研究。对被动螺旋附加运动产生的误差进行量化分析,结果表明,被动螺旋附加运动对惯组动态测试台的位姿精度存在非常显著的影响。为了消除该影响,编制了补偿算法,并将其应用于惯组动态测试台的实时控制系统中。实验结果表明,经过算法补偿后,惯组动态测试台的位姿精度达到了设计指标要求。     

天基光学短弧观测约束域的粒子群优化定轨方法

针对空间目标定轨问题,提出一种利用两段天基光学短弧观测数据的粒子群优化定轨新算法。在介绍天基光学短弧观测测量帧集、测量约束域及目标函数构造的基础上,为解决已有的基于网格搜索思想寻优的算法存在的多解、局部最优解及运算量过大等问题,提出了一种利用粒子群优化算法在约束域内对目标函数值寻优达到定轨目的的新算法。对算法的性能进行了仿真验证。多次仿真结果表明:该算法大大降低了计算量,且有效地解决了目标函数多解和局部最优解问题,对目标定轨的精度与定轨算法的克拉美罗下限接近。     

参数化建模的螺栓法兰连接刚度分析

为分析几何参数对螺栓法兰连接刚度的影响,用MSC.Patran软件的二次开发工具PCL(Patran Command Language)建立了螺栓法兰连接的参数化模型。研究了螺栓法兰连接刚度随连接结构几何参数的变化规律并进行了灵敏度分析。经分析可知,连接结构刚度对开孔位置比例参数最敏感,其次是上法兰厚度。当上部段长度大于某一数值时,连接结构刚度对上部段长度参数不敏感,这一结论能为连接结构动力学简化建模提供一定理论参考。     

基于CBM的航空装备保障费用动态分析

目前航空装备的保障普遍存在保障费用高和装备可用度低的问题。针对视情维修(Condition-based Maintenance,简称CBM)在新一代航空装备中的应用,以保证航空装备的战备完好性,降低维修保障费用为目标,应用系统动力学原理,建立基于视情维修的航空装备保障费用的动态反馈结构模型。仿真结果表明,将视情维修方法应用到航空装备保障,可有效降低保障费用,提高战备完好率。     

MONEY IN SOUTHERN AFRICAN POLITICS

“Lack of money is the root of all evil”

George Bernard Shaw

In a environment where party financing, private funding in particular, is generally a laissez-faire business, as in most Southern African countries, there is the real risk that interest groups and wealthy individuals will buy influence in political parties and in so doing erode public confidence in the political system. Because they are neither open to public scrutiny nor subject to any legislative restraints, huge private donations can, and often do, come with strings attached. This lack of transparency and openness, as well as mechanisms to prevent it, provides ample ground for influence peddling, where those who pay the piper call the tune. Left unchecked, this party funding scenario will continue to be a serious indictment of the region's democratisation projects, crippling democracy and stunting economic development. This article consid     

‘Fighting for peace’

In Africa, most of the present conflicts are civil, intra-state wars where belligerent groups use guerrilla tactics to achieve various political, economic or ideological objectives. The atrocities and the effect of these on-going wars on innocent civilians, human suffering, poverty and development are beyond comprehension. Not surprisingly, the majority of current peace operations are in Africa, with more than 70 countries contributing forces to these conflict zones. On the continent, South Africa has come to assume a leading role in peace operations and is now a major troop-contributing country to UN and AU missions. In the past 11 years, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has taken part in no fewer than 14 peace missions. This article provides a brief background of the conflicts in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan, the different United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU) mandates under which peacekeepers had to operate as well as their objectives, and the extent of South Africa's involvement in the various missions. In the last section, the major challenges, that these operations have posed are highlighted.     

Soar在水面舰艇CGF防空决策行为模型构建中的应用

计算机生成兵力(CGF)的行为模型研究一直是人工智能技术应用于军事仿真的一个重要研究内容。基于综合认知架构Soar设计并实现了水面舰艇CGF的自动防空决策行为模型,并在海战CGF系统中实现了该模型,应用结果表名Soar在构建CGF行为模型的有效性和可行性。     

基于效果的炮兵行动C2系统动力学建模与仿真

一体化联合作战参战军兵种多、指挥控制(C2)与协调复杂。围绕炮兵行动特点要求,运用系统动力学理论建立联合作战炮兵行动指挥控制的系统动力学模型,研究常规打击和基于效果作战两种指挥控制模式下炮兵行动所产生的不同结果及其原因,并给合作战想定仿真验证,得出较为可靠的结论,为解决联合作战炮兵行动精确指挥控制与协调提供一种有效途径     

The view from above: how the Royal Air Force provided a strategic vision for operational intelligence during the Malayan Emergency

It has long been held that the Federation of Malaya’s counter-insurgency campaign during the First Malayan Emergency (1948–60) was determined by the use of intelligence. Special Branch — the Federation’s primary intelligence agency — dominates the prevailing paradigm of how the insurgent threat was tackled. Conversely, the role of the Royal Air Force (RAF) within this paradigm is very limited. Most observers simply dismiss the role of photoreconnaissance or airstrikes as being largely inconsequential to the counter-insurgency effort. This is perhaps understandable: the Emergency was after all a ‘policing action’ and the insurgents were largely hidden under Malaya’s jungle canopy and amongst the Chinese community. However, further scrutiny reveals that the RAF made a much more significant contribution to the intelligence element of the counter-insurgency campaign than previously realised. First, the RAF decided to locate their Advanced Headquarters with the Army’s General Headquarters. This led to the creation of the Land/Air Operations Room, through which intelligence, tasking and resources were coordinated. Moreover, the RAF put its intelligence teams into the field to provide a practical link between local units and theatre-level assets. Second, with the support of the Army, the RAF established at the beginning of the Emergency the Joint Air Photographic Intelligence Board (Far East). This coordinated all photographic intelligence requirements throughout the Emergency, which was then delivered via the Joint Air Photographic Centre (Far East). Hence, via Joint Operations Centre and JAPIB (FE), the RAF provided both the practical means for effective joint intelligence operations at theatre level throughout the Emergency.