Warfare Aircraft Research Articles

Complex battlefields favor strong soldiers over large armies in social animal warfare

In social animals, success can depend on the outcome of group battles. Theoretical models of warfare predict that group fighting ability is proportional to two key factors: the strength of each soldier in the group and group size. The relative importance of these factors is predicted to vary across environments [F. W. Lanchester, Aircraft in Warfare, the Dawn of the Fourth Arm (1916)]. Here, we provide an empirical validation of the theoretical prediction that open environments should favor superior numbers, whereas complex environments should favor stronger soldiers [R. N. Franks, L. W. Partridge, Anim. Behav. 45, 197-199 (1993)]. We first demonstrate this pattern using simulated battles between relatively strong and weak soldiers in a computer-driven algorithm. We then validate this result in real animals using an ant model system: In battles in which the number of strong native meat ant Iridomyrmex purpureus workers is constant while the number of weak non-native invasive Argentine ant Linepithema humile workers increases across treatments, fatalities of I. purpureus are lower in complex than in simple arenas. Our results provide controlled experimental evidence that investing in stronger soldiers is more effective in complex environments. This is a significant advance in the empirical study of nonhuman warfare and is important for understanding the competitive balance among native and non-native invasive ant species.

“Red Bird Collaborative” Fighter Design

The main purpose of this project is to design an unmanned aerial vehicle that can cooperate with the main engine in the future. The unmanned aerial vehicle must have the following physical characteristics: detectable, cooperative flight, super maneuverability and other general characteristics [1]. The design of the aircraft mainly highlights the future. The characteristics of high-precision strikes against enemy aircraft in warfare. The performance of UAVs is optimized and innovatively designed. The aircraft mainly relies on the transmission sensor on the head to accelerate and hover around the enemy aircraft in a short period of time to seize the initiative in air combat [2]. Right to protect the host and destroy the enemy aircraft. In the future, this type of fighter will become Universal design direction.

Dispersed combat as mass action with finite search

Improvements to models of battle attrition are necessary because current models cannot explain battle attrition. Agent based simulations indicate that calculated attrition is substantially different when agents are not assumed to have unlimited detection capabilities. However, agent based models are limited to small force sizes and there is no evidence that the changes in calculated attrition occur for large force sizes. We develop a probabilistic model, based on Bernoulli trials, to check if limited detection capabilities result in significant changes to calculated attrition when force sizes are large, as in battle datasets. Our model is a search model and we convert it to an attrition model via the same processes used in current models, and include the same assumptions for factors other than detection range. We find two series solutions to the model, one for small force sizes, the other for large force sizes, and find numerically that the two solutions strongly overlap. The new model makes a difference to calculated attrition when force sizes are small, but not when they are large. However, the model makes a difference to calculated attrition for all force sizes if the battlefield area is increased to maintain a sparse force density. Our approach is mathematical, not requiring application knowledge, and several of the assumptions underlying mass action models are raised in our discussion. References J. V. Chase. Sea fights: A mathematical investigation of the effect of superiority of force in combats upon the sea . Naval War College Archives, RG 8, Box 109, XTAV (1902), 1902. N. R. Franks and L. W. Partridge. Lanchester battles and the evolution of combat in ants. Anim. Behav. , 45:197–199, 1993. doi:10.1006/anbe.1993.1021 G. S. Gradschtein and I. M. Ryzhik. Tables of Series, Products and Integrals . Deutcher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1996. N. C. Grassly and C. Fraser. Mathematical models of infectious disease transmission. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. , 6:477–487, 2008. doi:10.1038/nrmicro1845 D. Kahneman. Thinking Fast and Slow . Penguin, London, 2013. L. R. Kosowski, A. Pincombe and B. Pincombe. Irrelevance of the fractal dimension term in the modified fractal attrition equation. ANZIAM J. , 52:C988–C1011, 2011. doi:10.21914/anziamj.v52i0.3963 F. W. Lanchester. Aircraft in warfare: The dawn of the fourth arm . Constable, London, 1916. http://edc448uri.wikispaces.com/file/view/Lanchester+-+Aircraft+in+Warfare.pdf T. W. Lucas and T. Turkes. Fitting Lanchester equations to the Battles of Kursk and Ardennes. Nav. Res. Log. , 51:95–116, 2004. doi:10.1002/nav.10101 T. W. Lucas and J. A. Dinges. The effect of battle circumstances on fitting Lanchester equations to the Battle of Kursk. Mil. Oper. Res. , 9:17–30, 2004. http://www.mors.org/Publications/MOR-Journal/Online-Issues P. M. Morse and G. E. Kimball. Methods of Operations Research . Wiley, 1951. M. Osipov. The influence of the numerical strength of engaged forces in their casualties. Translated by R. L. Helmbold and A. S. Rehm. Nav. Res. Log. , 42:435–490, 1995. 3.0.CO;2-2>doi:10.1002/1520-6750(199504)42:3 3.0.CO;2-2 R. Peterson. On the logarithmic law of combat and its application to tank combat. Oper. Res. , 15:557–558, 1967. doi:10.1287/opre.15.3.557 A. H. Pincombe, B. M. Pincombe and C. E. M. Pearce, Putting the art before the force. ANZIAM J. , 51:C482–C496, 2010. doi:10.0000/anziamj.v51i0.2584 . A. H. Pincombe, B. M. Pincombe and C. E. M. Pearce. A simple battle model with explanatory power. ANZIAM J. , 51:C497–C511, 2010. doi:10.21914/anziamj.v51i0.2585 . B. M. Pincombe and A. H. Pincombe. Mass action models of Falklands War battles. ANZIAM J. , 57:C235–C252, 2016. doi:10.21914/anziamj.v57i0.10450 J. G. Taylor. Lanchester models of warfare. Operations Research Society of America, Arlington, 1983.

Mass action models of Falklands War battles

Mass action models of Falklands War battles

Taranis and beyond: inspiring aerodynamic capability

AbstractIn his 1916 book,Aircraft in Warfare, the Dawn of the Fourth Arm, F.W. Lanchester wrote:“The supremacy of British aircraft can only be maintained by the adoption of a thoroughly progressive constructional policy, guided constantly by the most recent scientific discovery and research, and by utilising to the full information and experience gained in the Services.”The recent successful flight trials of the Taranis low-observable unmanned demonstrator aircraft provide the latest evidence of the UK’s continued capacity for the entire design, development, manufacture, and flight testing of world-leading combat aircraft, particularly with regard to Aerodynamics. Taranis is both the culmination of many years’ research and development in the UK and a starting-point for the next generation of UK combat air systems.In this lecture, Taranis is reviewed, in such detail as current sensitivities will allow, in the wider context of UK combat aircraft aerodynamic capability, exemplified by the leading roles taken by the UK in the Tornado and Typhoon programmes and the important contribution made to the development of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.The immediate technical challenges associated with the aerodynamic design and qualification of a low-observable air vehicle are considerable. In this instance they have been compounded by the balanced view taken within the project of trade-offs against many parameters. However, the UK aerodynamics community faces equally stringent challenges in terms of the identification and delivery of the most appropriate future systems; increasingly complex and demanding operational and functional requirements; and, perhaps most of all, maintaining an affordable and cost-effective capability in the face of strict budgetary pressures and austere economic conditions.Nevertheless, those challenges are accompanied by a wide range of opportunities, namely for national and international partnership; radically innovative engineering solutions and approaches; new thinking; and the engagement of the best minds and ideas in the UK academic community.Taranis represented a big integration task, requiring a particular set of skills to pull together the total package, resting on a bedrock of mastery of the technical issues. It has been an inspirational experience for those of us who have worked on it. It has demonstrated that the UK is capable of achieving the most demanding current and anticipated military aerodynamic requirements and has signposted the way to an exciting and nationally important future.

Development of a control law to improve the handling qualities for short-range air-to-air combat maneuvers

Modern fighter aircraft have been designed to have high maneuverability in order to preoccupy strategic superiority in short-range air-to-air combat between fighter aircraft in warfare. Digital fly-by-wire flight control system design is aimed at providing good handling qualities for all mission task elements over the entire flight envelope. To provide both excellent gross acquisition and fine tracking compatibility, simultaneously for air-to-air combat maneuvers, this article presents a common longitudinal control law design of a task-dependent self-adjusting command-path pilot prefilter gain scheduler within the same control law design architecture and response type based on nonlinear dynamic inversion control. We perform the frequency- and time-domain analyses based on the mathematical model of T-50 advanced trainer aircraft to evaluate the basic flying qualities of the proposed control method. Furthermore, the pilot evaluation is performed to evaluate the gross acquisition and fine tracking capability for air-to-air tracking maneuvers in a handling quality simulator. The evaluation results reveal that the proposed control method improves the fine tracking capability without the degradation of gross acquisition.

The World Trade Center disaster: a tragic source of medical advancement

The history of medicine is full of examples of the determination of scientists when faced with public health disasters. As a result of this strength, many tragedies that occurred in the 20th century were followed by important scientific developments. If World War I marked the advent of chemical weapons, it also provided respiratory specialists with knowledge about the effects of poisonous gases on the lungs and led to the development of the first practical gas mask for mass production. The increased use of aircraft in warfare during World War II prompted Forrest M. Bird to develop oxygen masks to enable pilots to fly at higher altitudes than ever before. Further improvements of this technology led to the invention of the first modern ventilators, such as the Bird Universal Medical Respirator. The legacy of the Vietnam War to the medical field was the identification of acute respiratory distress syndrome (called Da Nang Lung at that time), by Colorado researchers in 1967 [1]. Other tragedies, such as the 1986 catastrophic nuclear accident of Chernobyl, led to a better understanding of the physiology of radiation poisoning, which had been evolving since the Hiroshima bombing, and helped improve treatment for victims of other disasters. There were advances in the creation of sterile hospital rooms, infection prevention, intravenous transfusion, life support systems, plasmapheresis, platelet transfusion, and bone marrow transplants. The dawn of the 21st century saw another tragedy that will remain in the memory of many generations to come: the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 in New York City, NY, …

Irrelevance of the fractal dimension term in the fractal attrition equation

The modified Fractal Attrition Equation (mFAE) models the casualties produced by Map Aware Non-uniform Automata (MANA), an agent based combat modelling distillation, at each MANA time step. The mFAE has three important differences from the simple early twentieth century models of casualties that used only the numbers on each side to make predictions. Firstly, only those agents within range of the enemy may inflict casualties. Secondly, the detection range is assumed to be greater than the range of weapons and a fitting factor assumed to represent the gap between these two ranges, is introduced. This builds in one of the assumptions of Network Centric Warfare, that you will be able to see your enemies before they can shoot at you. Thirdly, and novelly, a fractal dimension is introduced. We postulate that the important part of the information used in calculating the fractal dimension has already been incorporated into the model through the consideration of range. We test this hypothesis by comparing the outcomes of the mFAE with and without the fractal term on three scenarios: that used by the developers of the mFAE; best practice MANA tactics from the literature; and a rout scenario. When the two models are scaled to fit the MANA casualties there is no significant difference in fit. We conclude that the fractal term in the mFAE is redundant. References J. V. Chase, Sea fights, a mathematical investigation of the effect of superiority of force in. RG 8, Box 109, XTAV(1902), Naval War College Archives. F. W. Lanchester, Aircraft in warfare: the dawn of the fourth arm---No. V, The principle of concentration, Engineering 98: 422--423, (1914). http://www.archive.org/details/aircraftinwarfar00lancrich N. J. MacKay, Lanchester combat models, Mathematics Today, 42, pp.170--173, 2006. http://arXiv.org/abs/math/0606300v1 T. W. Lucas and T. Turkes Fitting Lanchester models to the battles of Kursk and Ardennes. Nav Res Log 51: 95--116 (2004). G. C. McIntosh and M. K. Lauren, Incorporating fractal concepts into equations of attrition for military conflicts, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2(59): 703--713, (2008). doi:10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602383 M. K. Lauren Firepower concentration in cellular automaton combat models---an alternative to Lanchester, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 53: 672--679, (2002). doi:10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601355 M. K. Lauren, J. M. Smith, J. Moffat and N. D. Perry Using the fractal attrition equation to construct a metamodel of the MANA cellular automaton combat model, The Technical Cooperation Program, Joint Systems and Analysis Group, Technical Panel 3, November 2005. G. C. McIntosh, D. P. Galligan, M. A. Anderson and M. K. Lauren, MANA (Map Aware Non-uniform Automata) Version 4 User Manual, DTA Technical Note 2007/3 NR 1465. http://arxiv.org/abs/nlin/0607051v1 J. Moffat, J. Smith and S. Witty, Emergent behaviour: Theory and experimentation using the mana model, Journal of Applied Mathematics and Decision Sciences---JAMDS , 2006, pp.1--14, 2006. doi:10.1155/JAMDS/2006/54846 D. R. Shine, An Exploratory Study of the Army-as-a-System Core Skills: Comparing the Effectiveness of Warfighting Tactics Using MANA, DSTO-TR-1663, (2005), DSTO (Australia). P. Grassberger and I. Procaccia, Characterization of strange attractors, Phys Rev Lett 50(5): 346--349 (1983). doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.50.346 J. G. Eisenhauer, Regression through the Origin, Teaching Statistics, 25(3): 76--80, (2003).

Human evolution and human history: A complete theory

Since Darwin we have been in possession of two superficially dissonant facts. On one hand, humans are merely one of millions of animal species, all products of common ancestry. On the other, humans enjoy a level of ecological dominance that is spectacularly, qualitatively greater than that of any other animal that ever lived, including our closest relatives. Moreover, this unique ascendancy results from a complex suite of attributes that are each individually also unprecedented, including cognitive virtuosity, complex language, and an expanded ethical sense. Collectively, these facts constitute the human uniqueness problem. In spite of its importance, the superficial complexity of this problem has frustrated attempts to resolve it. Though a vast body of earlier work produced important isolated insights, no earlier theory has proven complete or convincing. I briefly review here a new resolution of the human uniqueness problem.1 This new hypothesis appears to be the necessary theory-of-everything. It ostensibly accounts parsimoniously for every major nonstochastic feature of the human story from the origin of Homo approximately 2.0 to 2.5 million years ago through the present instant. I use secondary, review literature where possible here to improve interdisciplinary accessibility. As well, I apologize to the many investigators whose important work could not be directly referenced because of length constraints.

Letter to the Editor—The Fiske Model of Warfare

It appears that Lanchester's well-known N-square Law, described in his book Aircraft in Warfare (Lanchester, F. W. 1916. Aircraft in warfare the dawn of the fourth arm. Constable and Company, Ltd., London.) and published in 1916, was anticipated at least ten years either by Rear Admiral Bradley A. Fiske. As reported by Robison in A History of Naval Tactics (Robison, Rear Adm S. S. [U.S. Navy (Ret)], Robison, Mary L. 1942. A history of naval tactics from 1530 to 1930. U.S. Naval Institute, Annapolis.), the Naval Institute Prize for 1905 was awarded to Rear Admiral (then Commander) Bradley A. Fiske for an essay titled “American Naval Policy”.

A Monte Carlo Model of Lanchester's Square Law

F. W. Lanchester published, in 1916, the book entitled Aircraft in Warfare, the Dawn of the Fourth Arm (Lanchester, F. W. 1916. Aircraft in Warfare, the Dawn of the Fourth Arm. Constable, London.). In the course of the development of this work. Lanchester suggested equations, based upon probability analyses, that express various types of tactical situations. In the simplest form as proposed by Lanchester the theory, theorem, or law for a multiple-element engagement states “The over-all effectiveness of a given force equals the average effectiveness of the individual units multiplied by the square of the number of units engaged”. By multiple-element engagement is meant a situation in which each element of one force can fire on any or all elements of the other, as distinguished from a series of individual duels such as were experienced in early sword to shield warfare.