Considering a war with Iran

The paper is a strategic studies analyis of the war-fronts, weapon systems and political-military tactics of a U.S.-Iranian war, including the U.S. use of nuclear weapons

Influence of maneuverability on helicopter combat effectiveness

A computational procedure employing a stochastic learning method in conjunction with dynamic simulation of helicopter flight and weapon system operation was used to derive helicopter maneuvering strategies. The derived strategies maximize either survival or kill probability and are in the form of a feedback control based upon threat visual or warning system cues. Maneuverability parameters implicit in the strategy development include maximum longitudinal acceleration and deceleration, maximum sustained and transient load factor turn rate at forward speed, and maximum pedal turn rate and lateral acceleration at hover. Results are presented in terms of probability of skill for all combat initial conditions for two threat categories

Effective attacks in the salvo combat model: salvo sizes and quantities of targets

This article considers two related questions of tactics in the context of the salvo model for naval missile combat. For a given set of targets, how many missiles should be fired to produce an effective attack? For a given available salvo size, how many enemy targets should be fired at? In the deterministic version of the model I derive a simple optimality relationship between the number of missiles to fire and the number of targets to engage. In the stochastic model I employ the expected loss inflicted and the probability of enemy elimination as the main performance measures, and use these to derive salvo sizes that are in some sense “optimal”. I find that the offensive firepower needed for an effective attack depends not only on a target’s total strength but also on the relative balance between its active defensive power and passive staying power.Natural Science & Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Gran

Increasing Combat Aircraft Survivability Through Coherent Self-Protection Jammers

When the battlefields were within the visual range, the objective of deception tactics in warfare was to deceive the human senses. In the battlefield of electromagnetic spectrum, the objective of deception is to deceive the sensors of the enemy weapon systems. The survivability of the aircraft operating in hostile environment is of prime importance to the mission planner. If the aircraft can deny its location information to the tracking radar of the radar guided threat missile system, this, in return, may increase its survivability. The deception, a tactic which stems from the wisdom of ancient battles, incarnated in the form of Electronic Attack (EA) can give this capability to the aircraft operating in a hostile environment. Self-Protection Jammers (SPJs) mounted on aircraft that employ deception-repeater jamming techniques and the resulting effect of the deception jamming on the enemy sensor systems will be examined in this study. The impact of the specific flight path and formation geometry should be considered both from the perspective of coherent SPJs effectiveness and the survivability. The individual effectiveness of the EA by SPJs is usually limited by the available Effective Radiated Power (ERP). Due to limitations on the size of the aircraft, one can not afford to build powerful SPJs. The jamming technique and the effect of multiple jammers with respect to jamming effectiveness need to be examined for mission planning analysis. The specific jamming technique evaluated is the combined Range Gate Pull-Off (RGPO) and Velocity Gate Pull-Off (VGPO) against pulse Doppler radar. The challenge is to decide the least vulnerable flight path and the formation geometry for a strike formation in an air-to-ground engagement scenario. The degree of survivability provided by the combination of the formation geometry, flight path and the EA (multiple spatially dispersed coherent jammers) is the focus of this research. The modeling and simulation of the interactions between the self-protection jammer and the pulse Doppler tracking radar with respect to formation geometry and flight path is the initial objective