Decisional Fit under Turbulent Circumstances

The purpose of this communication is to study the effect of a recent networking decision support system (called Link 16) on decision performance, within the specific context of military operations. Based on a new decision model - the Decisional Fit Model ? we demonstrate that Link 16 fits with task characteristics and decision maker internal representations of the problem domain. However, improvements could be considered in order to increase the level of fit.Systèmes d'aide à la décision, Modèle d'adéquation, prise de décision en situation, conscience de la situation, performance décisionnelle

Post-Westgate SWAT : C4ISTAR Architectural Framework for Autonomous Network Integrated Multifaceted Warfighting Solutions Version 1.0 : A Peer-Reviewed Monograph

Police SWAT teams and Military Special Forces face mounting pressure and challenges from adversaries that can only be resolved by way of ever more sophisticated inputs into tactical operations. Lethal Autonomy provides constrained military/security forces with a viable option, but only if implementation has got proper empirically supported foundations. Autonomous weapon systems can be designed and developed to conduct ground, air and naval operations. This monograph offers some insights into the challenges of developing legal, reliable and ethical forms of autonomous weapons, that address the gap between Police or Law Enforcement and Military operations that is growing exponentially small. National adversaries are today in many instances hybrid threats, that manifest criminal and military traits, these often require deployment of hybrid-capability autonomous weapons imbued with the capability to taken on both Military and/or Security objectives. The Westgate Terrorist Attack of 21st September 2013 in the Westlands suburb of Nairobi, Kenya is a very clear manifestation of the hybrid combat scenario that required military response and police investigations against a fighting cell of the Somalia based globally networked Al Shabaab terrorist group.Comment: 52 pages, 6 Figures, over 40 references, reviewed by a reade

Development of a generic activities model of command and control

This paper reports on five different models of command and control. Four different models are reviewed: a process model, a contextual control model, a decision ladder model and a functional model. Further to this, command and control activities are analysed in three distinct domains: armed forces, emergency services and civilian services. From this analysis, taxonomies of command and control activities are developed that give rise to an activities model of command and control. This model will be used to guide further research into technological support of command and control activities

Conditions and options for an autonomous "Common European Policy on Security and Defence" in and by the European Union in the post-Amsterdam perspective opened at Cologne in June 1999. ZEI Discussion Papers: 1999, C 54

[From the Introduction]. According to the European Council’s Declaration on "the strengthening of the Common European Policy on Security and Defence" issued at Cologne on June 4th 1999, which follows the direction given by the "British- French Joint Declaration on European Defence", adopted at St. Malo on December 4th 1998, the European Union is to provide the institutional framework for a future "autonomous" European military contribution to international security. The essential legal basis for such "action" in international crisis and conflict situations, which would not correspond to "article 5 contingencies" of the North Atlantic alliance treaty and therefore would not constitute a case for NATO "collective defence" with the commitment of all the allies including the US and Canada, is to be the Union Treaty of Amsterdam, effective as of 19993. The common security and defence policy is to be set into the framework of the CFSP as defined by the union treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam and accordingly limited to the "Petersberg Tasks" agreed upon in 1992 by the partners of the WEU and inscribed into the Amsterdam treaty. It should be conceived as a part of the latter. In the wording of the Cologne decisions and the report of the German presidency, adopted by the Council as expression of the agreement between the member-states, the "development of a common European security and defence policy" is meant to "strengthen the CFSP". To this end "capacity for autonomous action, backed up by credible military forces, the means to decide to use them, and the readiness to do so" and "appropriate" organisms and procedures for decision-making are deemed necessary by the Chiefs of State and Government assembled at Cologne, "in order to respond to international crises". In the "Declaration of the European Council" on the "Common European Policy on Security and Defence" the "intention" is expressed to provide the EU with "the necessary means and capabilities" for "conflict prevention and crisis management" in order to "contribute to international peace and security in accordance with the principles of the UN Charter without prejudice to actions by NATO". The "measures" to be taken in such contingencies by the EU "irrespectively" of NATO require "military as well as political and economic" means

An Evaluation Schema for the Ethical Use of Autonomous Robotic Systems in Security Applications

We propose a multi-step evaluation schema designed to help procurement agencies and others to examine the ethical dimensions of autonomous systems to be applied in the security sector, including autonomous weapons systems

Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 291)

This bibliography lists 131 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in November 1986

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 324)

This bibliography lists 200 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during May, 1989. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and psychology, life support systems and controlled environments, safety equipment, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, and flight crew behavior and performance