Private military contractors’ financial experiences and incentives

ABSTRACT

This article analyses findings from an original survey of 187 private military contractors on their incentives for working in the industry. Perceptions of contractors as “greedy, ruthless, and unscrupulous mercenaries” shape both public and military opinions of outsourcing and may impact U.S. military effectiveness, civil–military relations, and contractor identity. We find that contractors are motivated by a range of factors and that their financial experiences are not clearly more positive than that of state military troops. We recommend broad education of military and defense officials and the public in the U.S. and other relevant nations, regarding the true incentives of modern-day, Western contractors, in an effort to dispel misperceptions, increase effective utilisation of contractors, and beneficially shape PMC-military coordination. DoD may consider integrating such training into its current efforts to improve outsourcing, including its Joint OCS Planning and Execution Course, pre-deployment fora, and curricula of advanced military studies schools.     

Defence industry in Iran – between needs and real capabilities

ABSTRACT

The paper’s goal is to analyses the potential of the Iranian defence industry, including both research-and-development and production capabilities. It is argued that, despite official statements about the great power and sophistication of the Iranian defence industry, in reality its capabilities are very limited and cannot meet the operational needs of the Iranian armed forces. At the same time, it is argued that many official releases, which are abundantly available in the Iranian press and often unthinkingly repeated by the Western media, do not present the real and value of military products, but are rather a tool for deception and propaganda.     

军事无线通信抗干扰装备及技术发展

以经典扩跳频抗干扰通信技术为切入点,综述了外军短波、超短波战术通信和数据链领域抗干扰装备和技术的发展现状,在此基础上,对通信抗干扰技术未来发展趋势进行了分析和预测。     

绿洲农业清洁生产初探

兵团农业是兵团国民经济的基础。随着兵团各农牧团场生产集约化程度不断提高,化肥、农药等在农业生产中大量投入及农业生产技术的不合理使用,使农业生态环境污染日趋严重,改善农业生产技术,推广农业清洁生产(即利用对环境友好的“绿色”化肥、“绿色”农药、“绿色”薄膜)是兵团农业可持续发展的方向。     

军事信息系统作战活动描述方法研究*

针对军事信息系统需求分析需要,探讨了作战活动过程描述、作战节点连接描述、节点状态转换描述和作战活动时序描述的内容和方法。基于该理论和方法,可以准确描述信息化条件下军事人员对军事信息系统的应用需求,实现军事人员与技术人员的有效沟通,为军事信息系统军事需求分析与应用设计的基础。     

军事欺骗战法分析的数学方法-应用*

针对军事欺骗战法定量分析困难的问题,采用基于贝叶斯统计推断和博弈均衡分析的数学方法,在理论上为解决此难题提供了一种可行的方法.该方法首先定义基本概率矩阵,然后根据贝叶斯原理为交战双方构造用于统计推断的主观概率矩阵,并在由两个主观概率矩阵元素构成的偏序链与实施军事欺骗机会之间建立对应关系,再将此关系推广到基本概率矩阵,即是否存在实施军事欺骗的机会将由基本概率矩阵元素构成的偏序链决定.对理论成果的初步应用表明:通过分析由战场情报信息构成的基本概率矩阵的偏序链,可以科学地运用军事欺骗和反军事欺骗战法.     

军事仿真概念模型及其开发过程研究

军事仿真概念模型是对现实军事世界中事物或现象的一种独立于具体仿真实现的表示方法。规范的仿真概念模型是一种“认识标准”,是军事领域专家与仿真技术人员沟通、协作,提高仿真模型正确性、互操作与重用性的基础。本文从仿真概念模型的内涵、作用与分类出发,探讨了仿真概念模型在军事仿真开发中的位置和角色。     

Size Still Matters: Explaining Sri Lanka’s Counterinsurgency Victory over the Tamil Tigers

The military effectiveness literature has largely dismissed the role of material preponderance in favor of strategic interaction theories. The study of counterinsurgency, in which incumbent victory is increasingly rare despite material superiority, has also turned to other strategic dynamics explanations like force employment, leadership, and insurgent/adversary attributes. Challenging these two trends, this paper contends that even in cases of counterinsurgency, material preponderance remains an essential—and at times the most important—factor in explaining battlefield outcomes and effectiveness. To test this, the paper turns to the case of the Sri Lankan state’s fight against the Tamil Tiger insurgency, a conflict which offers rich variation over time across six periods and over 25 years. Drawing on evidence from historical and journalistic accounts, interviews, memoirs, and field research, the paper demonstrates that material preponderance accounts for variation in military effectiveness and campaign outcomes (including military victory in the final campaign) better than strategic explanations. Additionally, a new quantitative data-set assembled on annual loss-exchange ratios demonstrates the superiority of materialist explanations above those of skill, human capital, and regime type.