BDA Enhancement Methodology using Situational Parameter Adjustments

In the context of close ground combat, the perception of Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) is closely linked with a soldier’s engagement decisions and has significant effects on the battlefield. Perceived BDA is also one of the most complex and uncertain processes facing the soldier in live combat. As a result, the modeling and simulation community has yet to adequately model the perceived BDA process in combat models. This research effort examines the BDA process from a perception standpoint and proposes a methodology to collect the pertinent data and model this perception in the Army’s current force-on-force model, CASTFOREM. A subject matter expert survey design and a method to model the BDA process as a Discrete Time Markov Chain are proposed. Bayesian inference is used to update probability distributions at each time step considering the Situational Parameters available to the soldier at the time of an assessment. Comparisons between known simulation distributions and those developed from simulated survey responses suggest an adequate number of subject matter experts to be polled

A Brief Overview of Digital Military Systems Used in the Armies of NATO Member Countries = A NATO-tagországok által alkalmazott digitális katonai rendszerek rövid áttekintése

Today’s wars have undergone significant change. These changed military operations have changed the way armies are deployed, including the role and responsibilities of soldiers. New tools are needed to overcome the new challenges. 21st century soldiers need 21st century equipment to perform their duties. A project is present in several NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) member states army to develop individual equipment systems for dismounted soldiers equipped with modern military equipment, which are in the pilot phase, under introduction or authorised. I present these briefly in my publication. | A ma háborúi jelentős változáson mentek át. Ezek a megváltozott katonai műveletek megváltoztatták a hadseregek alkalmazásának módját, ezen belül a katonák szerepét és feladatait. Az új kihívások leküzdéséhez új eszközökre van szükség. A ­21. század katonáinak 21. századi felszerelésre van szükségük feladataik végrehajtásához. Több NATO-tagország haderőiben van jelen kísérleti fázisban lévő, bevezetés alatt álló vagy rendszeresített, modern hadeszközökkel felszerelt gyalogos katonák egyéni eszközrendszereinek fejlesztésével foglalkozó projekt. Ezeket mutatom be röviden a publikációmban

Dropping Question Marks: War Art, Leadership, the Canadian Forces and Afghanistan

As a contemporary war artist, Gertrude Kearns presents interpretive challenges to the commemoration and contextualization of controversial aspects of Canadian military history, both from her personal perspective and in terms of the institutional responsibilities associated with meaningful public presentations of war art. In the context of her decade-long Afghan War senior leadership series, and with reference to earlier Somalian and Balkan works, in this article she discusses the appropriateness of her selected subject matter as well as her own responsibility as a war artist in dealing with everything from disturbing and regular subjects to mission concept. Kearns reviews accountability, her work both officially and unofficially with Canadian personnel, and offers diverse military and civilian perspectives on her independent research approach and decisions as a civilian war artist working with specific Canadian Forces military topics and events

Enduring engagement yes, episodic engagement no: lessons for SOF from Mali

This thesis examines SOFs recent experience in Mali and determines whereor to what extentit should be considered a failure. In addition to analyzing these encounters, a second aim of this thesis is to make recommendations for how SOF might better build partner capacity and capability in the future. The argument made is that enduring engagement is of enduring value; episodic engagement, on its own, is not. Examples of both types of engagement can be found in United States Special Operations Forces recent interactions with the Malian military.http://archive.org/details/enduringengageme1094538996Outstanding ThesisMajor, United States ArmyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Army Future Combat System (FCS) "Spin- Outs" and Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV): Background and Issues for Congress

This report discusses the Future Combat System (FCS), which was a multiyear, multibillion dollar program at the heart of the Army's transformation efforts

The blast pelvis

Decreasing the human cost of war is a vital role within the Ministry of Defence, and the Defence Medical Services. With the considerable improvements in care, from point of wounding to rehabilitation, it is possible that we have reached the ceiling of optimal management with available, deployed resources. Injury prevention or mitigation may therefore have a more important role than ever in improving survival rates. The current character of conflict, and certainly the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have seen the Improvised Explosive Device used to devastating effect to personnel. These devices cause multisystem injuries, and have a high fatality. The lower extremity was most often affected in these recent conflicts, and many fatalities occurred. A greater understanding of lower extremity trauma biomechanics is likely to be key to preventing future fatalities due to injuries in this body region. This thesis focusses on lower extremity blast injury, performs a review of current understanding, and undertakes a casualty data analysis to further understand injury patterns and the cause of fatal wounding. This analysis finds that haemorrhage secondary to pelvic fracture is the key factor in fatal lower extremity injuries, and therefore an area of considerable research interest. Pelvic injury patterns were therefore analysed using measurement techniques to qualify injury patterns and understand the link between injury patterns and the presence of vascular injury. Subsequent physical and computational testing provided a platform to apply different loading conditions to the pelvis to replicate a blast injury, and understand the behaviour of the bony structures under high rate axial loading. This thesis concludes that the anterior pelvic ring at the pubic symphysis is key to pelvic integrity at high rates of loading. Disruption of the anterior pelvis can lead to subsequent posterior ligamentous rupture which, due to the proximity to major vessels, can lead to major haemorrhage and death. Preventing lateral disruption may be the key to maintaining pelvic integrity at these high loading rates, and preventing vascular compromise and fatality from lower extremity blast injuries.Open Acces

From capability to concept : fusion of systems analysis techniques for derivation of future soldier systems

The intent of this thesis is to define a set of processes for use within UK Government dismounted soldier systems research that will provide stakeholders with auditable and traceable information to understand gaps in military capability and justify future procurement decisions. The need for this approach is linked to organisational shifts within the UK Ministry of Defence, and more specifically Government research with the move towards procurement of capability rather than equipment. In conjunction with reducing defence budgets and increased scrutiny, there is a need to prioritise spending to those areas that will provide the most significant enhancement to operational effectiveness. The proposed process suite provides underpinning data to support Government decisions, from definition of military need through to concept design and prioritisation of future research activities. The approach is grounded in the field of systems thinking and systems engineering providing the logical and systematic constructs required for highly complex systems where the human is a central focus. A novel fusion of existing systems tools and techniques enables both subjective data from domain experts and objective data in the form of operational analysis and field trials to be utilised for analysis across the five NATO capability domains, with output defining the relative importance of survivability, sustainability, mobility, lethality and C4I in the context of operational and strategic level military goals as well as wider challenges represented by the doctrinal defence lines of development. Future developments should include alignment with developing pan-MoD initiatives in the form of MODAF, if required by the customer organisation. This would enable generic versions of the process suite to be applied to any defence domain and problem.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo