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

A cost-effectiveness analysis of tactical satellites, high-altitude long-endurance airships, and high and medium altitude unmanned aerial systems for ISR and communication missions

Before 1991, the United States military's demand for additional communications bandwidth and timely intelligence was rising rapidly. Since then, with the advent of the Global War on Terrorism, it has increased substantially. To address this growing need, the Department of Defense has focused its acquisition and procurement efforts on obtaining new communications and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms that can help lessen shortfalls and possibly exploit new, untapped resources. Recently, there has been an increasing focus on new technology, such as tactical satellites or high-altitude long-endurance airships, as a way to increase communications and intelligence collection capacities. Likewise, advances in the capabilities of medium-altitude and high-altitude unmanned aerial systems have resulted in a more prominent role for them on today's battlefield. Each of these vehicles has a unique niche in today's military, but the increasing capabilities of each are beginning to create some overlap in their uses. This study will conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis on these systems for use as a persistent communications and ISR platform. In particular, it will measure the effectiveness of each for comparison, and will offer possibilities to increase the overall effective use of the three together to maximize performance and cost.http://archive.org/details/acosteffectivene109453934US Army (USA) author.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

The Strategic Challenges of Urban Warfare

With urbanization on the rise, policymakers cannot ignore urban conflicts. In the aftermath of the Cold War, several scholars were of the opinion that primitive modes of fighting, such as close combat, would cease to be used. However, as urban spaces have increasingly become battlefields in the 21st century, there has been a retrogression to a brutal and bloody mode of fighting. This return of primitivism affects the tactics that the military can use in urban warfare, which makes it a daunting strategic challenge. A combined focus on policy, strategy, and operations is necessary to improve thinking about how exactly to engage in urban warfare. Since this is a low-tech military problem, high-tech advances do not provide viable solutions. Israel\u27s Operation Protective Edge and the joint Iraqi and American fight for eastern Mosul are assessed in this thesis in their policy, strategy, and operational dimensions. Finally, I present conclusions and recommendations suggesting that we concentrate on honing our capabilities and knowledge in order to successfully engage in urban warfare while staying true to liberal democratic values. Such an approach will provide policymakers with more strategic options for dealing with urban warfare

Horizontal Fusion: Enabling Net-Centric Operations and Warfare

the ability to access real-time information at the right time to make the right decisions

Militarism and opposition in the living room: the case of military videogames

This article explores the importance of videogames and their associated promotional media for both militarism and the resulting opposition. It focuses on the games Medal of Honor and Medal of Honor Warfighter - two mainstream, commercially successful military combat games which purport to offer an 'authentic' experience of post 9/11 military action to the player - to develop a framework to explore the role of videogames in this area. First, in terms of the military industrial and military entertainment complex, it shows the close association between the game developers and the military, with the military providing consultancy services, access to military hardware and openly celebrating their mutual associations. Second, these associations take on an important spatial dimension with the developers and weapons makers producing promotional materials which literally show both parties 'enjoying one anothers company' in the same physical space; games also 'transport the player' into the virtual battlefield and allow them to embody the soldier. Finally, gendered militarism is shown in the gameplay and narratives within these games, alongside their associated promotional materials, all of which place significant emphasis on the links between militaristic values and masculinity. In both games, the celebration of militarism was highly controversial, prompting heated debate and active opposition - albeit varying in the two cases - from the military, politicians and players on the appropriateness of using videogames for militaristic entertainment. This suggests that there are limits to society's acquiescence in militarism and a continuing capacity to critique militaristic popular culture

LOGISTICS IN CONTESTED ENVIRONMENTS

This report examines the transport and delivery of logistics in contested environments within the context of great-power competition (GPC). Across the Department of Defense (DOD), it is believed that GPC will strain our current supply lines beyond their capacity to maintain required warfighting capability. Current DOD efforts are underway to determine an appropriate range of platforms, platform quantities, and delivery tactics to meet the projected logistics demand in future conflicts. This report explores the effectiveness of various platforms and delivery methods through analysis in developed survivability, circulation, and network optimization models. Among other factors, platforms are discriminated by their radar cross-section (RCS), noise level, speed, cargo capacity, and self-defense capability. To maximize supply delivered and minimize the cost of losses, the results of this analysis indicate preference for utilization of well-defended convoys on supply routes where bulk supply is appropriate and smaller, and widely dispersed assets on shorter, more contested routes with less demand. Sensitivity analysis on these results indicates system survivability can be improved by applying RCS and noise-reduction measures to logistics assets.Director, Warfare Integration (OPNAV N9I)Major, Israel Defence ForcesCivilian, Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd, SingaporeCommander, Republic of Singapore NavyCommander, United States NavyCaptain, Singapore ArmyLieutenant, United States NavyLieutenant, United States NavyMajor, Republic of Singapore Air ForceCaptain, United States Marine CorpsLieutenant, United States NavyLieutenant, United States NavyLieutenant, United States NavyLieutenant, United States NavyLieutenant, United States NavyCaptain, Singapore ArmyLieutenant Junior Grade, United States NavyCaptain, Singapore ArmyLieutenant Colonel, Republic of Singapore Air ForceApproved for public release. distribution is unlimite

Assess Intermediate Force Capabilities (IFC) and concept of operations for application during the Competition Phase in an environment of GPC

NPS NRP Technical ReportIntermediate force capabilities represent a strategic risk mitigation investment that are designed to provide warfighters tools to compete below the level of major armed conflict without losing credibility in the information. This research examines the effects of a set of intermediate force capabilities to assess the strategic impact on a near peer adversary during the competition phase in a 'gray zone' scenario. The effort will seek to gain insights and identify challenges to the employment of IFCs, through several venues, including leveraging defense analysis and operations research department faculty and students and utilizing the NPS warfighting continuum of Joint Campaign Analysis and Wargaming Applications courses.HQMC Plans, Policies & Operations (PP&O)This research is supported by funding from the Naval Postgraduate School, Naval Research Program (PE 0605853N/2098). https://nps.edu/nrpChief of Naval Operations (CNO)Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

Pseudo-Separation for Assessment of Structural Vulnerability of a Network

Based upon the idea that network functionality is impaired if two nodes in a network are sufficiently separated in terms of a given metric, we introduce two combinatorial \emph{pseudocut} problems generalizing the classical min-cut and multi-cut problems. We expect the pseudocut problems will find broad relevance to the study of network reliability. We comprehensively analyze the computational complexity of the pseudocut problems and provide three approximation algorithms for these problems. Motivated by applications in communication networks with strict Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements, we demonstrate the utility of the pseudocut problems by proposing a targeted vulnerability assessment for the structure of communication networks using QoS metrics; we perform experimental evaluations of our proposed approximation algorithms in this context

Impacts of Anti-Access/Area Denial Measures on Space Systems: Issues and Implications for Army and Joint Forces

The 2018 National Defense Strategy and National Space Strategy both reaffirm the vital interests that the United States has in the domain of space. However, space remains an inherently hostile environment that has become congested, contested, and competitive among the nations. What are ways for the U.S. Army to assure the success of its space-dependent warfighting functions in an anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) environment where space systems are degraded for significant periods of time?https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1395/thumbnail.jp