Capacitated selection problem

Optimizing the selection of resources to accomplish a set of tasks involves evaluating the tradeoffs between the cost of maintaining the resources necessary to accomplish the tasks and the penalty cost associated with unfinished tasks. We consider the case where resources are categorized into types, and limits (capacity) are imposed on the number of each type that can be selected. The objective is to minimize the sum of penalty costs and resource costs. This problem has several practical applications including production planning, new product design, menu selection and inventory management. We develop a branch‐and‐bound algorithm to find exact solutions to the problem. To generate bounds, we utilize a dual ascent procedure which exploits the special structure of the problem. Information from the dual and recovered primal solutions are used to select branching variables. We generate strong valid inequalities and use them to fix other variables at each branching step. Results of tests performed on reasonably sized problems are presented. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 46: 19–37, 1999     

Operating Costs of Aging Air Force Aircraft: Adjusting for Aggregate Budget Effects

The rate at which operating costs grow as aircraft age is important for setting operating budgets and for deciding when to replace aging systems. While studies using data from the 1990's typically found 1–3 percent real rates of growth in operating costs as aircraft age, studies using data from the 2000's found greater rates, for example in the 4–6 percent range. Growth in the total U.S. Air Force budget during the 2000s appears to explain much of the higher estimated annual growth rates in operating costs per flying hour beyond the growth rate intrinsic to the aging of the fleet.     

慢刀伺服加工环曲面的刀具路径规划方法

如何规划刀具路径、进而获得高质量的数控加工代码,是应用慢刀伺服技术加工环曲面的关键技术之一。提出了基于等距面规划刀位点轨迹的刀具路径规划方法,推导了外凸环曲面的面形方程及其等距面方程,对比分析了两种导动曲线及两种数据点离散方法,优选了刀具路径规划方案,应用VB.net语言编写了慢刀伺服加工环曲面用数控代码生成软件,在Vericut平台上对数控代码进行了仿真验证,直观地展示了虚拟加工面相对理论曲面的残留区域,仿真结果验证了方法的可行性。结果表明:将外凸环曲面方程中的非一次常数项a变为a+r_d,即得到外凸环曲面的等距面方程;所提刀具路径规划方法适用于慢刀伺服加工外凸环曲面;该方法对应用慢刀伺服技术加工其他面型的光学镜面具有借鉴价值。     

Path planning for moving target tracking by fixed-wing UAV

For the automatic tracking of unknown moving targets on the ground, most of the commonly used methods involve circling above the target. With such a tracking mode, there is a moving laser spot on the target, which will bring trouble for cooperative manned helicopters. In this paper, we propose a new way of tracking, where an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) circles on one side of the tracked target. A circular path algorithm is developed for monitoring the relative position between the UAV and the target considering the real-time range and the bearing angle. This can determine the center of the new circular path if the predicted range between the UAV and the target does not meet the monitoring requirements. A transition path algorithm is presented for planning the transition path between circular paths that constrain the turning radius of the UAV. The transition path algorithm can generate waypoints that meet the flight ability. In this paper, we analyze the entire method and detail the scope of applications. We formulate an observation angle as an evaluation index. A series of simulations and evaluation index comparisons verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.     

深入学习贯彻习主席重要论述 全面推进军队院校军事理论研究创新发展【将军论坛】

科学的军事理论就是战斗力。在新起点上全面推进军队院校军事理论研究创新发展,必须深入学习贯彻习主席关于军事理论创新的重要论述,着力提高站位、谋篇布局、形成拳头,进一步加强标准统筹、导向统筹、力量统筹和机制统筹,努力为强军兴军实践提供科学理论支撑。     

Principles of Minimum Force and the Parachute Regiment in Northern Ireland, 1969–1972

Developing literature on Operation Banner, the codename for the British military operation in Northern Ireland, has indicated that the conduct of soldiers deployed was not always in line with principles of minimum force. Adherence to these principles would seem to have been essential to the success of the operation given the initial deployment of the soldiers was in the role of military aid to the civil power. This article will examine the role of one of the British Army’s most aggressive units, the Parachute Regiment, and will show how the responses of the regiment to the demands of the operation in Northern Ireland were frequently in contravention of minimum force principles.     

Exploring the subsidiarity principle in policing and the operations of the Nigeria Police Force

The provisions of the 1999 Constitution, which recognises the existence of a single police force and forbids parallel police organisations, have oftentimes generated controversies among actors in the Nigerian federal polity. Rising insecurity precipitates lingering questions on the utility and adequacy of a single, highly centralised and centrally controlled police force given Nigeria’s geographic vastness and demographic diversity. Conversely, arguments have also dwelt on the dangers of fragmentation considering Nigeria’s psychosocial, economic and political nature. This article attempts to balance these arguments by analysing policing and the operations of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) through the lens of the subsidiarity principle. Subsidiarity is a governance principle in federations, captured in the founding documents of the European Union (EU), which prescribes that governmental powers, authorities and duties should be held by the tier that can best perform them equitably, efficiently, effectively, suitably and based on interest and need. Drawing largely on interviews with purposively selected police scholars, political actors, civil society organisations and police personnel, the paper contends that this principle offers a pragmatic solution to the perennial problems of intergovernmental frictions on the use of the police within the context of governance in the Nigerian federation.     

South African defence policy: the rationale and impact of the SANDF’s primary role and conventional force design

The 2015 South African Defence Review set out to reverse the deterioration of South African National Defence Force (SANDF) capabilities. Within the South African Department of Defence (DOD) this deterioration is expressed mainly in terms of a decreasing defence budget, subsequent declining conventional capabilities and obsolete prime mission equipment. Contemporary research and defence expert debates on this theme, point out the disjuncture between policy ends and the available means, with scepticism for an increased defence budget given the DOD’s lack of internal reform and strategy adjustment. One question that remains largely unanswered in the literature regarding the decline of the SANDF, is why both the policy-makers and the SANDF have remained focused on the primary role of the military (defending territorial integrity) accompanied with an unaffordable conventional force design? This question relates to the aim of this paper and is explored by revisiting initial defence policy decisions and compromises that were made in the 1990s. It is argued that the primary role of the SANDF and its conventional force design suited the interests of both the politicians and the military, but that the drawbacks thereof have harshly caught up with the DOD.     

新编制体制下武警部队装备任务需求

为加快建设现代化武警部队,解决配属装备与日益增长的任务需求之间的矛盾,论文以武警部队指挥体系变更、警种部队调整的现实背景,围绕武警部队遂行任务情况,整理分析出新编各警种对装备的任务需求,为推动武警部队装备体系发展提供理论参考。     

“作战云”理论视阈下的装甲兵装备保障

"作战云"的作战理念将引发装甲装备保障领域的深刻变革。文章剖析了"作战云"理论视阈下装甲兵装备保障问题的基本内涵,从装备保障力量部署、指挥控制方式、协同方式、防护手段四个方面分析了"作战云"视阈下装甲兵装备保障的主要特点,提出"探测——决策——保障——评估"的装备保障行动流程。