Counter-Insurgency in Pakistan: The Role of Legitimacy

The Pakistani security forces have won their fight against the insurgency of the Pakistani Taliban, though terrorism will remain a serious problem for the foreseeable future. Victory was won not chiefly on the basis of new tactics, but of the recovery of legitimacy for the campaign among the population and the armed forces. This occurred when the war came to be seen as one waged not in the interests of the USA, but for the defence of Pakistan. In Balochistan, the nationalist insurgency has been different from and weaker than that of the Taliban—but may prove longer lasting. Military tactics in Balochistan have closely resembled those of the British Raj, and have been based with some success on fomenting tribal divisions and co-opting tribal elites.     

Insurgency and Violent Extremism in Pakistan

Pakistan has an uneven history of dealing with insurgencies and extremism. This article identifies the various campaigns and policies employed to defeat militants and deal with violent extremism. It describes the major anti-state groups and how Pakistan’s military and civilian leaders, relying on the related strategies of selectivity, gradualism and containment, have allowed militancy and terrorism to thrive. This article finds that while the elites and the public may have belatedly come to appreciate the existential internal threats these groups pose to the country, there are strong reasons to doubt the state’s full commitment to its promises to take meaningful action.     

无人机规避或跟踪空中目标的自适应运动导引方法

无人机规避或跟踪空中目标可以看作是一个非线性运动导引控制问题。针对这类任务中无人机和目标存在高机动性、高时敏性等特点,提出了一种基于Lyapunov稳定性理论的无人机规避或跟踪目标运动导引方法。构建了基于精细时间运动导引方法的无人机规避或跟踪空中目标问题求解框架,并将无人机碰撞规避和机动目标跟踪问题分别转化为到达虚拟目标点和与虚拟目标点交会的问题。针对碰撞规避问题,将其转化为实现平行导引的控制问题,基于Lyapunov稳定性理论设计了无人机碰撞规避导引律。针对机动目标跟踪问题,在碰撞规避基础上,根据目标点交会的要求设计了相应的目标跟踪导引律。在Gazebo平台上开展了仿真验证实验,实验结果表明:所提方法能够有效避免大过载情况的出现,并具有较强的时变和参数适应性。     

凹障碍超宽带SAR图像特征分析

野外环境下的凹障碍感知一直是地面无人作战平台环境感知面临的难题,长期以来常规传感器,例如立体视觉、红外相机和激光雷达,都没有取得好的效果。超宽带合成孔径雷达作为一种全天时、全天候的高分辨率雷达,在目标感知方面得到了广泛的运用。基于超宽带合成孔径雷达感知凹障碍是一种有效的感知手段,阐述了凹障碍的雷达成像几何,利用MATLAB模拟仿真合成孔径雷达数据获得了凹障碍图像,分析得出了凹障碍在雷达图像表现出由阴影区和光亮区紧密相连的特征,并通过实测数据成像获得的凹障碍图像结果,对凹障碍雷达图像特征进行了进一步的验证。     

伞翼无人机线性自抗扰高度控制

针对伞翼无人机参数不确定性和复杂环境干扰敏感的问题,提出一种伞翼无人机线性自抗扰(Linear Active Disturbance Rejection Control,LADRC)高度控制方法。建立伞翼无人机8自由度飞行动力学模型,并引入风场和降雨模型以更加准确地模拟真实飞行环境。基于LADRC确定总体控制架构,设计线性扩张状态观测器对所有扰动进行估计,并引入误差反馈率在控制中实时补偿。使用该控制方法在多种扰动工况下进行伞翼无人机高度控制仿真实验。仿真结果表明,基于LADRC的高度控制方法能够有效克服内扰和外扰的影响,实现高精度高度控制;与传统PID控制效果相比,LADRC控制器具有更好的抗扰能力和鲁棒性。     

The role and capabilities of major weapon systems transferred between 1950 and 2010: Empirical examinations of an arms transfer data set

Arms transfers provide exporters an avenue to provide security to other states while gaining economic benefits. Arms transfers provide importers an avenue to gain security without having to rely on alliances. Past research uses aggregate measures of the monetary or security value of major weapon system transfers without accounting for strategic differences in possible use in interstate and civil conflict. This article presents a data set on interstate transfers of major weapon systems between 1950 and 2010 building upon Stockholm Peach Research Institute’s Arms Trade Register with several improvements. First, it disaggregates land weapons and air weapons into categories reflecting their strategic capabilities. Second, model level characteristics (e.g. age, speed, and range) are drawn from Jane’s Defence sources. Additionally, the data set covers a larger range of time and states than previous data sets categorizing arms. To demonstrate the usefulness, this article first presents summary statistics of the data set and then replicates an earlier test to show that the effect of human rights and regime types on United States transfers differs across the categories of arms compared to alternative measures of arms transfers.     

考虑浮绳联结的双无人船艇系统协同控制策略研究

针对青岛等海域浒苔泛滥成灾的问题,开展了由浮绳柔性连接两艘水面无人船艇构成的双无人船艇系统协同控制策略研究,通过双无人船艇系统清扫浒苔,并将其拖运至海岸.考虑系统中的无人船艇动力、浮绳力矩和水流产生的干扰力矩,建立了欠驱动无人船艇三自由度动力学模型,提出了基于距离的包含编队和跟踪两个模式的协同控制策略.双无人船艇系统作...     

Thermal explosion of a reactive gas mixture at constant pressure for non-uniform and uniform temperature systems

In this study, the approximate and exact solutions for the stationary-state of the solids model with neglecting reactant consumption for both non-uniform and uniform temperature systems were applied on gas ignition under a constant pressure condition. The criticality conditions for a slab, an infinite cylinder, and a sphere are determined and discussed using dimensionless temperatures under constant ambient and surface temperatures for a non-uniform temperature system. Exact solution for a Semenov model with convection heat loss was also presented. The solution of the Semenov problem for constant volume or density as a solid and constant pressure were compared. The critical parameter δ is calculated and compared with those of Frank-Kamenetskii solution values. The validation of the calculated ignition temperatures with other exact solution and experimental results were offered. The relation between critical parameters form Semenov and F.K. models solution was introduced.     

One-step synthesis of FeO(OH) nanoparticles by electric explosion of iron wire underwater

In this study,we investigated electric explosion of iron wire in distilled water with different energy input adjusted by charging voltage.The as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD),scanning electron microscopy (SEM),transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS),showing the presence of iron and multiple iron-based compounds oxides with contents influenced by the experimental conditions.In particular,pure FeO(OH) nanoparticles were obtained using electric explosion of iron wire with energy input of 1125 J at charging voltage of 15 kV.Analysis of discharge current and resistive voltage data indicate that the high energy input induced by strong plasma discharge at high charging voltage is a key factor to form FeO(OH).This study presents a one-step method to synthesize FeO(OH) nanoparticles using electric explosion of iron wire.     

The investigation of NTO/HMX-based plastic-bonded explosives and its safety performance

3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO) is the main component of insensitive munitions (IM) formulation because of its outstanding insensitive properties.In this paper,a series of NTO/HMX-based composite explosives were prepared and characterized.The study focuses on the effect of NTO on the performance of the formulations,especially the safety performance.The results revealed that the mechanical sensi-tivity of formulations was associated with NTO content,as well as the thermal conductivity,specific heat capacity and Arrhenius parameters.Then,the high amount of NTO using in formulation was proved to be helpful for NTO/HMX-based formulation to exhibit good thermal safety.Besides,by accelerating rate calorimeter (ARC) and a modified cook-offequipment,the pressure and pressure rise rate were proved as the important indicator for judging the thermal safety performance in confined spaces.Finally,the numerical simulation was used as a credible method for predicting the respond temperature of cook-off experiment.