Non-lethal weapons and the long tail of warfare

This paper examines whether non-lethal weapons (NLWs) enhance the capability of the US armed forces to conduct irregular warfare (IW) operations. With expectations that the operational environment will only continue to become more complex in the future, NLWs may reduce the level of violence received, as well as dispensed, by US forces while performing tasks in the IW spectrum. We argue that NLWs increase the ability of US forces to address the long tail of warfare and their deployment should be increased in the near term.     

‘Immediate redress’: USS Potomac and the pirates of Quallah Batoo

Maritime interests in the twenty-first century are not immune to the growing number of irregular challenges and hybrid threats that have come to dominate land warfare. In order to better understand these challenges a study of naval history can help provide a vital foundation. In the early 1830s the United States Navy dispatched the frigate USS Potomac to Sumatra to investigate a pirate attack on the spice trader Friendship. Potomac's crew of sailors and Marines conducted a landing at the village Quallah Batoo and fought a pitched battle. As the navies of the world approach naval irregular warfare in the new century, studying past examples like Potomac's mission can help illuminate the principles of successful naval irregular warfare.     

果蝇算法优化的相关向量机在电子装备中的应用

针对电子装备渐变故障预测问题,提出一种基于果蝇算法优化相关向量机的故障预测方法。该方法将原始时间序列数据进行相空间重构处理,并基于折交叉验证和果蝇算法优化相关向量机模型的核函数参数,从而建立故障预测模型,并以某型雷达发射机速调管监测数据对模型性能进行了验证。实验结果表明,相比已有方法,该方法在全局优化、收敛速度、预测精度以及预测可靠性方面都具有一定优势。     

基于SD的信息化防御作战中兰彻斯特方程

在对信息化条件下的防御作战进程分析的基础上,增加信息因素和兵力补充速度对经典的兰彻斯特方程进行改进。通过引入系统动力学方法,构建了信息化条件下的防御作战进程的系统动力学模型,利用系统动力学方法来对改进的兰彻斯特方程进行求解。仿真结果证明了系统动力学在解决复杂兰彻斯特方程中的优越性。     

基于分布式网络化指控体系的协同跟踪设计

针对当前干扰防空环境下的作战特点,通过对网络化作战需求的分析,建立了一种分布式的网络化指挥控制体系架构,并结合协同跟踪的具体作战运用,设计了基于此分布式体系的协同跟踪作战流程,并建立了效能验证模型。对比一般的集中式指挥控制体系,基于分布式的体系具有生存性强、作战使用效能高的特点。     

天波超视距雷达评述

天波超视距雷达以其独特的工作方式使它在抗低空突防、抗隐身、抗反辐射导弹（ＡＲＭ）、抗电子干扰这“四抗”性能上有天然的优势。与其它雷达相比,效费比极高。其分布式结构也使它的抗毁性很强,但它极受环境因素制约。就该雷达的工作原理和特点、设计上要考虑的环境因素、性能、开发试验和部署及应用前景进行了讨论。     

The Damoclean sword of offensive cyber: Policy uncertainty and collective insecurity

Cyberspace is a new domain of operation, with its own characteristics. Cyber weapons differ qualitatively from kinetic ones: They generate effects by non-kinetic means through information, technology, and networks. Their properties, opportunities, and constraints are comparable to the qualitative difference between conventional and nuclear weapons. New weapons and their target sets in a new domain raise a series of unresolved policy challenges at the domestic, bilateral, and international levels about deterrence, attribution, and response. They also introduce new risks: uncertainty about unintended consequences, expectations of efficacy, and uncertainty about both the target’s and the international community’s response. Cyber operations offer considerable benefits for states to achieve strategic objectives both covertly and overtly. However, without a strategic framework to contain and possibly deter their use, make state and non-state behavior more predictable in the absence of reciprocal norms, and limit their impact, an environment where states face persistent attacks that nonetheless fall below the threshold of armed conflict presents a policy dilemma that reinforces collective insecurity.     

美小型舰艇编队电磁威胁评估和电子对抗策略

为重塑大国竞争优势,夺取和保持全球主要海区控制权,美国海军在“由海向陆”向“重返制海”的战略转型中,提出了旨在分散对手火力密度、提高对手决策难度的“分布式杀伤”概念。在此概念下,海上小型舰艇编队成为美国及其盟国海军显示前沿存在、争夺海权的重要力量。准确分析和把握美军运用海上小型舰艇编队的政治和军事企图,分析其基本组成、作战任务及主要运用方式对军队来说具有一定的现实意义。本文从“侦”“攻”“防”三个方面简要分析了美军海上小型舰艇编队的电子对抗能力,结合当前海上斗争形势评估了美军海上小型舰艇编队的电磁威胁,并从技术发展、体系建设和理念创新等方面提出军队未来的电子对抗策略。     

The Russian hybrid warfare strategy – neither Russian nor strategy

Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its initial actions in eastern Ukraine in 2014, the term hybrid warfare has received much public attention. Many have argued that the Russian actions we saw in Ukraine were part of a completely new strategy while others have suggested that there was nothing new in Russia’s actions. This article takes a critical look at these claims. Through the assessment of the history of the term hybrid warfare and a rigorous analysis of the so-called Gerasimov doctrine, this study finds that the Russian hybrid warfare strategy is rather a western myth than a formal comprehensive Russian strategic concept. Additionally, through the assessment of the Russian use of information operations and the way she has utilised the cyberspace in several recent conflicts, the study finds that against all claims Russia did not make these areas its main battlefield, but rather has been using them in support of its traditional concepts.     

Late Medieval Lance Use: Mounted Combat and Martial Arts in Western Europe from the 14th to the 16th Century

Despite the lance’s status and the amount of attention the couched lance has received in historiography, study of its martial art has been neglected. The various lance types and techniques used by western European cavalry have only recently begun to receive scholarly attention. Additionally, Medieval European lance use has too often been studied in isolation, without an adequate understanding of the idiosyncratic and asymmetrical dynamics of mounted combat. Although the charge with the couched lance was a valid tactic, it was only one of many. Light and heavy lances were used in one hand or two to trip, block, unhorse, and wrestle. These techniques were governed by the harsh laws of distance, speed, impact, iron, and asymmetry. By utilizing the surviving Fechtbücher and several Peninsular and Near Eastern sources, a brief foray into the diverse techniques of lance use and their purposes has been attempted here.