The essence of war: French armies and small war in the Low Countries (1672–1697)

In the late seventeenth century during the Dutch War (1672–1678) and the Nine Years War (1688–1697), French armies relied on small war for the accomplishment of essential tasks and as part of an overall strategy of exhausting their opponents in the Low Countries. The purposes of small war included the imposition of contributions on enemy populations, the destruction of the enemy base of operations, blockades of fortresses, and the general support of campaign armies. The expression ‘small war’ in the French language appeared with growing frequency in the 1690s. Small war can be viewed as both a cause and consequence of the characteristics of these wars. The limited policy goals of Louis XIV the king of France required a strategy that minimised risk and accomplished the goal of reducing if not eliminating the Spanish presence in the Low Countries that bordered the north of France. As French armies increased in size during this period, the demand for specialists at small increased in order to provide security and ensure supply. Small war in the late seventeenth century was thus not ideologically motivated insurgency, but in the minds of French commanders an essential component of strategy and the nature of war.     

The insurgency of the Vendée

The insurrection in the Vendée combined open warfare with the methods of petite guerre, ambushing French republican soldiers and cutting their supply lines to Paris. These tactics, when combined with the hatreds generated by a civil war, go far to explain to the cruelty of the conflict in the west and the depth of the hatreds it engendered. In republican eyes the use of guerrilla tactics was unjust and illegitimate, and they denounced their adversaries as common criminals and brigands, portraying them as backward, superstitious, even as subhuman, and in the process justified the savage repression they unleashed against them.     

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’.     

基于马尔科夫决策的目标选择策略

目标选择是军事计划的关键要素之一。基于马尔科夫决策方法,解决具有复杂目标间关联的多阶段目标选择问题。使用与或树描述目标体系各层状态间的影响关联,并以目标体系整体失效为求解目的,建立了基于离散时间MDP的多阶段打击目标选择模型。在LRTDP算法基础上提出一种启发式方法,通过判断从当前目标体系状态到达体系失效状态的演化过程中的可能资源消耗和失败概率,来提供对当前状态的评估值,该方法能有效排除问题搜索空间中不能到达体系失效目的的中间状态,压缩了由于目标间复杂关联而增长的巨大状态空间。用实验验证了该方法有效性,实验结果表明,该方法直观实用,对目标间具有复杂关联关系的目标打击决策有一定参考价值。     

某型运载火箭地震响应分析及减震设计

竖立状态的运载火箭一旦遭遇地震,极易造成箭体倾倒等灾难性后果。为了确保运载火箭在地震中的安全,针对某型运载火箭,采用时程分析法对其进行地震响应分析,得到了火箭的弯矩、位移响应峰值沿箭体纵向的分布规律。分析了火箭关键位置处弯矩响应的频域特性,设计了火箭的减震措施,并分析了火箭与发射台的连接刚度、隔震支座刚度对火箭地震响应的影响规律。结果表明:火箭弯矩响应的最大值发生在靠近火箭尾段的位置,位移响应的最大值发生在火箭头部位置;改变火箭与发射台连接刚度以及在发射台底部加装隔震支座的方式可以有效地减小火箭的地震响应。     

数字化部队作战能力综合实验设计

综合实验设计是运用综合实验分析评估数字化部队作战能力的前提和基础。探讨了综合实验设计的内涵,在此基础上,根据知识成熟性规律,对综合实验所需采用的方法进行了分析,确定了综合实验由专家研讨实验、构造仿真实验、虚拟仿真实验(或实兵演习实验)以及联合实验所组成,并重点研究了综合实验的实施程序,解决了各实验方法在综合实验中的运用时机问题,旨在为我军未来运用综合实验对数字化部队作战能力进行分析评估提供参考。     

装备技术体系网络建模与结构优化方法

针对装备技术发展管理的重用度和冗余度问题,研究了体系网络建模与结构优化方法。将装备技术抽象为节点,技术关系抽象为边,提出了基于装备技术描述属性框架和技术关系分析的体系网络建模方法;将3种经典的网络社团探测方法应用于装备技术聚类,通过比较评估指标,生成了技术聚类优化方案;基于加权网络中心度算法,识别了对体系冗余影响最大的装备技术。以包含235项激光武器装备技术的技术体系为例,验证了方法的有效性,总结了体系结构的优化结论。     

利用星角距不变性标定星敏感器内部参数

提出了一种恒星角距不变的星敏感器内部参数的地面标定方法。较常见的星角距的标定方法不同的是,该方法利用对在0°附近的角度变化较敏感的恒星角距的正弦值建立观测方程;采用两步法分别估计焦距、主点和高阶畸变系数,并采用迭代优化的方法,获得最优估计值。为了确保标定精度,对观测时刻的导航星进行了视位置的修正。实验结果表明,采用星角距的正弦值建立观测方程,估计精度较高,采用考虑高阶畸变的改进正弦法标定后的星角距误差的均方根值为2.2×10-5rad。     

基于优化蚁群算法的装备调拨决策系统研究与设计

将蚁群算法和遗传算法应用于装备调拨决策系统,实现了装备调拨决策信息的生成.同时利用遗传算法对蚁群算法的参数进行了优化,实验证明优化后的蚁群算法在平均路径长度、算法平均执行时间和总执行时间上较传统蚁群算法都有一定程度的改进.     

Serious Rules for Nuclear Power Without Proliferation

The authors propose five principles for addressing the major deficiencies of the current treaty-based approach to nonproliferation. These involve: effectively closing the door to withdrawals from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT); defining which nuclear technologies fall within the NPT's “inalienable right” provision, so as to maintain a reasonable safety margin against possible military application; expansion of International Atomic Energy Agency inspections to include greater readiness to use its “special” inspection authority; creation of an NPT enforcement regime, to include a secretariat; and universalizing the NPT so as to apply to all states, while creating a path for current non-parties to come into compliance. There is no illusion here about the prospects for the adoption of this approach. At a minimum, the world needs to be frank about the gap between nuclear programs and current nonproliferation protection. Encouragement of greater use of nuclear power should be predicated on closing that gap.