The Law of Operational Targeting: Viewing the LOAC through an Operational Lens

Air and missile warfare is and will almost certainly continue to be a ubiquitous aspect of contemporary armed conflicts. Yet, the law related to the regulation of this aspect of warfare has failed to develop at the same pace as the methods and means of employing such combat assets. The Manual on International Law Applicable to Air and Missile Warfare (AMW Manual)\u27 is therefore without question an important development in the law of armed conflict. Although not hard law, it reflects the consensus of some of the most respected jus in bello scholars in the world on how existing law of armed conflict (LOAC) rules and norms apply to this type of warfare

Asset Allocation with Swarm/Human Blended Intelligence

PSO has been used to demonstrate the near-real-time optimization of frequency allocations and spatial positions for receiver assets in highly complex Electronic Warfare (EW) environments. The PSO algorithm computes optimal or near-optimal solutions so rapidly that multiple assets can be exploited in real-time and re-optimized on the fly as the situation changes. The allocation of assets in 3D space requires a blend of human intelligence and computational optimization. This paper advances the research on the tough problem of how humans interface to the swarm for directing the solution. The human intelligence places new pheromone-inspired spheres of influence to direct the final solution. The swarm can then react to the new input from the human intelligence. Our results indicate that this method can maintain the speed goal of less than 1 second, even with multiple spheres of pheromone influence in the solution space

Technology strategy in irregular warfare: high-tech versus right-tech

When faced with any type of irregular warfare, technology integration has proved to be problematic for developed countries with technologically advanced militaries. Developed countries train and equip their militaries and develop military doctrines that tend to focus on protection from other developed countries. Thus, these military agencies are well prepared for conventional warfare and assume they can use the same operational concepts against irregular adversaries as well. Unfortunately, this theory has proved incorrect. History suggests that developed countries rely on the most advanced technologies to provide an advantage in all operations; however, high-tech does not always equate to right-tech. Through three related case studies, this thesis analyzes how strong actors use varying levels of technology to engage weak actors in irregular warfare, and how the misuse of technology can lead to defeat rather than victory for the strong actors. I suggest that advanced militaries should develop technology strategies for irregular warfare that are based on tailored capabilities. Additionally, these agencies need processes that promote tactical and technological innovation to fill operational gaps in their capabilities for waging irregular warfare.http://archive.org/details/technologystrate1094547856Major,United States Air ForceApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Using computational swarm intelligence for real-time asset allocation

Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is especially useful for rapid optimization of problems involving multiple objectives and constraints in dynamic environments. It regularly and substantially outperforms other algorithms in benchmark tests. This paper describes research leading to the application of PSO to the autonomous asset management problem in electronic warfare. The PSO speed provides fast optimization of frequency allocations for receivers and jammers in highly complex and dynamic environments. The key contribution is the simultaneous optimization of the frequency allocations, signal priority, signal strength, and the spatial locations of the assets. The fitness function takes into account the assets' locations in 2 and 3 dimensions maximizing their spatial distribution while maintaining allocations based on signal priority and power. The fast speed of the optimization enables rapid responses to changing conditions in these complex signal environments, which can have real-time battlefield impact. Initial results optimizing receiver frequencies and locations in 2 dimensions have been successful. Current run-times are between 300 (3 receivers, 30 transmitters) and 1000 (7 receivers, 30 transmitters) milliseconds on a single-threaded x86 based PC. Statistical and qualitative tests indicate the swarm has viable solutions, and finds the global optimum 99% of the time on a test case. The results of the research on the PSO parameters and fitness function for this problem is demonstrated

Asset allocation in frequency and in 3 spatial dimensions for electronic warfare application

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)This paper describes two research areas applied to Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) in an electronic warfare asset scenario. First, a three spatial dimension solution utilizing topographical data is implemented and tested against a two dimensional solution. A three dimensional (3D) optimization increases solution space for optimization of asset location. Topography from NASA's Digital Elevation Model is also added to the solution to provide a realistic scenario. The optimization is tested for run time, average distances between receivers, average distance between receivers and paired transmitters, and transmission power. Due to load times of maps and increased iterations, the average run times were increased from 123ms to 178ms, which remains below the 1 second target for convergence speeds. The spread distance between receivers was able to increase from 86km to 89km. The distance between receiver and its paired transmitters as well as the total received power did not change signi cannily. In the second research contribution, a user input is created and placed into an unconstrained 2D active swarm. This \human in the swarm" scenario allows a user to change keep-away boundaries during optimization. The blended human and swarm solution successfully implemented human input into a running optimization with a time delay. The results of this research show that a electronic warfare solutions with real 3D topography can be simulated with minimal computational costs over two dimensional solutions and that electronic warfare solutions can successfully optimize using human input data

Navy Shipboard Lasers for Surface, Air, and Missile Defense: Background and Issues for Congress

This report focuses on potential Navy shipboard lasers for countering surface, air, and ballistic missile threats. It does not discuss the use of lasers on Navy aircraft or submarines, or the use of lasers by other military services. This report is based on unclassified, open-domain information from the Navy, industry, and research organizations such as RAND

An Army of Never-Ending Strength: The Reinforcement of the Canadian Army 1944-1945

Abstract: “An Army of Never Ending Strength: The Reinforcement and of the Canadian Army 1944-1945” This dissertation is a study of the Canadian Army’s ability to reconstitute battalion sized combat arms regiments (armour, infantry and artillery) during the last year of the Second World War in North West Europe. The central thesis argues that in combination with tactical and strategic strengths, the Canadian Army Overseas was effective at rebuilding units that had suffered severe personnel and equipment losses in combat. This ability to sustain the strength of its combat units was vitally important in maintaining their offensive capability. Units that had suffered catastrophic losses were rebuilt and re-equipped in a rapid manner that allowed them to be capable of any kind of operation. Without replacement resources at the ready, offensive capability within the Canadian Army would be inhibited, regardless of effective tactics or strategies. In comparison to the Germans, the Canadian Army was a phoenix, continually strengthening its operational units and maintaining their combat capability. By examining the record of Canadian replacements, losses, available resources and overall combat force deployed, a picture emerges of an Army with overpowering organizational, logistic and administrative strengths.

Robotics and the Future of International Asymmetric Warfare

In the post-Cold War world, the world's most powerful states have cooperated or avoided conflict with each other, easily defeated smaller state governments, engaged in protracted conflicts against insurgencies and resistance networks, and lost civilians to terrorist attacks. This dissertation explores various explanations for this pattern, proposing that some non-state networks adapt to major international transitions more quickly than bureaucratic states. Networks have taken advantage of the information technology revolution to enhance their capabilities, but states have begun to adjust, producing robotic systems with the potential to grant them an advantage in asymmetric warfare