The structure of the defense industry and the security needs of the country: a differentiated products model

This paper models the interactions between the defense needs of the USA and Western Europe, which produce several heterogeneous defense goods, and the defense industry market structure. The results show that net defense costs of the USA and Europe are lower when the number of defense firms in each arms‐producing country is small and when the world prices of the defense goods are high. The model predicts that the increase in world prices will crowd‐out countries in the developing world from the market for modern weapon systems and may force them to develop and use ‘cheap and dirty’ weapon systems.     

ON THE USE OF TERROR WEAPONS VERSUS MODERN WEAPON SYSTEMS IN AN ARMS RACE BETWEEN DEVELOPED AND LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

Some of the most active arms races are taking place between developed and less developed countries. The inability of less developed countries to compete financially, as well as technologically, with developed countries may be forcing the former to acquire terror weapons (TWP). The Iran–Iraq war in the 1980s and the events of 9/11 proved that the use of TWP is no longer a mere threat; there are several organizations and countries that will not hesitate to use them. This study develops a model of resource allocation in an arms race between a developed country that is characterized by state‐of‐the‐art technology and high GDP, and a less developed country whose technological capability and GDP are much lower. The model is used to predict the optimal mix of weapons of the two countries that are engaged in the arms race. Applying the model to the arms race between Israel and Syria demonstrates its use.     

ON THE CHOICE OF MULTI-TASK R&D DEFENSE PROJECTS: A CASE STUDY OF The ISRAELI MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM

Investments in R&D constitute a major share of the expenditures of the hi-tech industry since, generally, they enable firms to successfully compete in the rapidly and constantly changing markets for hi-tech products and services. The role of R&D projects is particularly important in the areas of defense and homeland security due to the nature of warfare and the continuous threats posed by arms races and by terror organizations. This study analyzes the choice of the R&D projects designed to counter multiple related military threats. It develops the methodology required to assess whether it is preferable to develop one project to thwart several related threats, or several distinct projects, each of which provides an answer to one specific threat or a partial set of the threats. An analytic solution is provided and assessed for two simple models with two related threats. A solution of the model is then provided for any number of related threats, using a dynamic programming methodology. Finally, we demonstrate the usefulness of our model and methodology to Israel’s missile defense problem; that is, we show how to optimally develop systems aimed at thwarting the multiple threats of short-, medium-, and long-range missiles.     

UNDER THE RADAR?

Missile Contagion: Cruise Missile Proliferation and the Threat to International Security, by Dennis M. Gormley. Praeger Security International, 2008. 272 pages, $54.95.     

THEORY AND APPLICATION TO THE US MILITARY

An ever‐growing share of defence R&D expenditures is being dedicated to the development and fielding of integrative technologies that enable separate individual systems to work in a coordinated and synergistic fashion as a single system. This study explores the optimal defence budget allocation to the development and acquisition of weapon systems and to the development of integrative technologies. We develop a suitable optimization framework, and then use it to derive the optimal budget allocation and analyse its properties. Finally, we use US defence budget data to calibrate the parameters of the model and provide a quantitative measure for the apparent US military supremacy.     

SYMBIOTIC SPIES

Spying on the Nuclear Bear: Anglo-American Intelligence and the Soviet Bomb, by Michael S. Goodman. Stanford University Press, 2007. 295 pages, $50.     

模糊理论与D-S理论在指控系统目标识别融合中的应用

多传感器信息融合技术已获得了普遍的关注和广泛的应用,其理论和方法已成为智能信息处理的一个重要领域,模糊理论与证据理论(D-S)是主要的技术之一.在某试飞指控系统中,为了获得可靠的识别结果需要目标识别的融合问题.系统的从实际出发提出了基于模糊理论与D-S理论的目标识别融合方法.仿真计算结果表明,该模型和方法具有方法简单、运算量小和识别结果可靠等优点,具有一定的理论意义和使用价值.     

Impact of atmospheric turbulence on coherent beam combining for laser weapon systems

The performance of a laser weapon system based on coherent beam combining (CBC) depends on its propagation properties in the atmosphere. In this study, an analytical model based on partial coherent beam combining (PCBC) for assumed coherence coefficients between beams in a CBC lattice was developed. The Kolmogorov model of atmospheric turbulence and the Hufnagel-Valley model of Cn2 dependence on atmospheric parameters were implemented. Novel simplified metrics were proposed to assess the CBC performance. Several beam profiles (super-Gaussian, truncated Gaussian, etc.) and ge-ometries were analyzed in terms of maximal intensity in the far field. An approximate formula for PCBC efficiency dependent on the Fried radius was proposed. The results of CBC modeling were compared to those of the Gaussian beam propagation model in a turbulent atmosphere. The dependence of CBC performance on the Cn2 parameter, range, and elevation angle was analyzed. It could be concluded that the application of CBC for medium and long range propagation is impractical without an effective adaptive optics system.