Battle Management Research Articles

Validating Measures of Team Reorganization and Interdependency in Response to Uncertainty in an Air Battle Management Task

Teams working in complex, high-stakes environments may encounter uncertain situations for which they are not trained and can suffer dangerous consequences if they fail to overcome such uncertainty. We focus on how reorganization and dynamic interdependency across communications and air battle management (ABM) assets in response to uncertainty can be quantified in dynamic task environments. We analyzed data from a 5-day experiment conducted in an ABM task scenario to validate metrics of team reorganization and dynamic interdependency. Interactions quantifying reorganization and interdependency across technological task components significantly predicted team performance and higher interdependency of team communications also predicted better performance. Our findings indicate that reorganization and interdependency, primarily across technological assets, may be valid predictors of team effectiveness. Practical implications of this work primarily relate to assisting teams to achieve adaptive team-level proficiencies to uncertainty-inducing perturbations by providing objective feedback on reorganization and interdependency during team training.

Interface Design to Support Transfer of Tactical Control (ToTC) in Distributed Teams

To be effective, future combined joint operations will require distributed teams to share assets via the Transfer of Tactical Control (ToTC). The goal of this research was to develop and conduct a usability assessment of ToTC enabling interfaces within a UxV command and control simulation testbed. Three interfaces were developed: Enhanced Play Workbook, ToTC Request Tile, and Enhanced Vehicle Status Tile. These interfaces were evaluated by eleven participants with UxV (MQ-9 pilots/sensor operators) or battle management experience within a base defense scenario. Within the resource constrained scenario, participant completed just over half of the tasks and ToTC request rates were low overall. When UxV requests were performed by participants, their feedback suggested that the interfaces enhanced team situation awareness, but the request process could be further streamlined to support situations in which there might be a high rate of requests.

Is the Pull-Down Effect Overstated? An Examination of Trust Propagation Among Fighter Pilots in a High-Fidelity Simulation

Research on trust propagation has primarily been conducted with undergraduates using low-fidelity scenarios. It is unclear if the pull-down effect (e.g., system-wide trust) occurs in more applied domains with actual operators. A sample of experienced US Air Force fighter pilots ( n = 13) engaged in six trials using a high-fidelity simulation for Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA). The pilots were given command of four CCAs to complete realistic targeting missions. They were asked to monitor the CCAs, report any errors, evaluate a number of potential targets, select a valid target, and select one of the CCAs to perform a strike. One of the CCAs evidenced an error in four of the six trials (17% of all observations), and if the pilots did not report the error, they were prompted to it by an experimenter playing the role of Air Battle Manager. After each trial, reliance intentions and subjective workload were assessed for each of the four CCAs. The presence of an error reduced trust and increased workload for that CCA referent only. There was no evidence of a pull-down effect, nor did the composition of the CCA group (homogenous vs. heterogenous) influence trust propagation. Implications for trust research are discussed.

Indian AEW&C System in the Global Perspective

An Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) System is an airborne multi-sensor system designed to detect Air-and Surface-Targets. Used at a high altitude, the system allows the operators to distinguish between friendly and hostile aircraft hundreds of kilometres away. The AEW&C aircraft is used for defensive and offensive air operations. The system is used offensively to direct fighters to locations of their targets and defensively to counter attacks. It can also be used to carry out surveillance, command and control, and battle management functions. The paper traces the evolution of the AEW&C System in the global scenario and compares the Indian effort to tailor-make an optimal state-of-the-art system to meet specific requirements of the Indian Air Force.

Solving nonstationary Markov decision processes via contextual decomposition: A military air battle management application

Reinforcement learning for nonstationary problems is a subject of widespread research given that most realistic problems do not exist within static environments. Approaching these problems can require significant effort in feature engineering to provide a learning algorithm with enough useful information about the state space to uncover complex system dynamics. As an alternative for problems with sufficient data describing the nonstationary environment, we propose the contextual decomposition Markov decision process (CDMDP) as a collection of stationary sub-problems intended to approximate nonstationary problem dynamics using a linear combination of value functions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the CDMDP approach with an application in military air battle management. We use a designed computational experiment and analysis of variance to show that a complex, nonstationary learning problem can be effectively approximated with a small set of stationary sub-problems, and that the CDMDP solution significantly improves solution quality over a baseline approach without the need for additional feature engineering. If a researcher suspects that a complex and continuously varying environment can be approximated by a small number of stationary contexts, the CDMDP framework may save significant computational resources and yield decision policies that are much easier to visualize and implement.

VALUATION OF INTANGIBLE ASSETS IN THE CONTEXT OF ECONOMIC INSTABILITY IN UKRAINE

The article is devoted to the issues of intangible assets valuation caused by globalization processes, deep digital transformation of economic relations, and, as a result, implementation of the results of innovation and intellectual activity in all spheres of economic activity. Ukraine's current realities include the development and use of innovative software in military operations (artificial intelligence, autonomous systems (unmanned aerial vehicles), software (automated battle management systems, situational awareness systems, digital maps, etc.), in the field of security and defence, ecology, healthcare and rehabilitation of the military and civilians, restoration of energy and transport infrastructure, etc. All of these processes are associated with the generation of intellectual products and intellectual property rights, which are intangible assets by their economic nature and cannot be commercialized without their valuation.The purpose of the article is to analyze the international experience and national practice of valuation of intangible assets and intellectual property rights in the process of their commercialization, as well as in the accounting and reporting system in the context of economic instability. The author highlights the problems of valuation and disclosure of intangible assets in financial statements, in particular, the need to test them for changes in potential usefulness, given the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the russian military invasion of Ukraine, which have led to impairment of assets, increased risks and their impact on accounting estimates and disclosures.The main results of this research are the improvement of methodological approaches to the valuation and testing for changes in the potential usefulness of intangible assets, taking into account the risks associated with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, russia's military aggression against Ukraine, and global economic uncertainty.

Evaluation of Air Combat Control Ability Based on Eye Movement Indicators and Combination Weighting GRA-TOPSIS

At present, expert scoring is mainly used to evaluate the air combat control ability, which is not accurate enough to effectively achieve the desired effect. In order to evaluate air battle managers’ air combat control ability more scientifically and accurately, using eye-tracking technology, a quantitative evaluation model is established based on eye movement indicators. Specifically, the air combat control ability was comprehensively assessed using the GRA-TOPSIS method based on the EW-CRITIC combination weighting. The model innovatively uses eye movement indicators as a vital evaluation basis. Firstly, it puts forth a comprehensive evaluation method by combining GRA with TOPSIS methods, using the EW and CRITIC methods for combined weighting, and giving full play to the advantages of various evaluation methods. Secondly, it not only effectively copes with the problem that the traditional evaluation method is deeply affected by subjectivity but also creatively provides a reasonable means for future training evaluation of air battle managers. Finally, the effectiveness and feasibility of the evaluation model are verified through case analysis.

USE OF GEO-INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES WHEN CONDUCTING COMBAT OPERATIONS IN MODERN CONDITIONS

The article considers the actual problem of the specifics of attracting additional resources when conducting military operations in modern conditions using the latest technologies and geo-information systems. The purpose of the article is to systematize modern technical means, namely geo-information systems for military purposes, which significantly affect the outcome of hostilities. An important task is the use of the latest technical and organizational developments. The authors consider in detail the advantages of using geographic information systems with up-to-date databases of attributive information and their use by both command and rank-and-file members of the Armed Forces. This will be facilitated by the spread of specialized applications that can be installed on an ordinary smartphone. In turn, the speed of making an informed decision will be influenced not by the availability of relevant information but also by the speed of decision-making. The solution to this problem will be facilitated by the developed interface of the latest software tools. The authors of this study solve the following tasks: they analyses the features of modern military operations and the conduct of hostilities with the help of modern technology and software tools. The authors systematize the features of attracting additional resources when conducting hostilities in modern conditions. The article proposes a general scheme for the use of human resources in modern warfare, as well as the collection, and processing of information, the formation of a database, and further use of data with the help of military GIS. The authors suggested using the interaction of satellite communications, modern methods of obtaining intelligence, and the interaction of headquarters and units directly performing combat tasks. As a promising direction for the development of the Armed Forces, it proposed to attach tasks to a digital information map and to accumulate and transfer information using modern geodatabases and data processing by modern battle management systems such as «ARTA» and «DELTA». Keywords: geoinformation technologies, geoinformation systems, armed forces, civil society, intelligence, database, UAV

U.S. missile defense policy in the context of great power competition

American missile defense in the late 1990s began to develop as a protection against the DPRK and Iran. Washington's official approach has evolved over twenty years. Currently, certain segments of the U.S. missile defense policy are officially linked with the confrontation against Russia and China. Even if the Russian or Chinese strategic nuclear forces, due to their size, will never be the main target for U.S. missile defense, the air components of the Chinese and Russian nuclear triads are already in the ‘crosshairs’ of U.S. missile defense. The overall strategy for the use of integrated air and missile defense is evolving. There are a number of features of the qualitative and quantitative development of regional missile defense systems to protect U.S. troops and their allies. The space component of missile defense, even without the creation of orbital missile defenses, is developing in a direction that can threaten strategic stability. The confrontation with North Korea and Iran because of the size of their missile arsenals makes it necessary to integrate offensive and defensive systems with each other. But it is precisely the confrontation with the Russia and China that makes the U.S. to unite offensive missiles, missile defense, air defense, and, in the long term, measures to protect their space assets through architecture of sensors of various types and battle management systems.

Emergent behavior in the battle management system

ABSTRACT Many countries including Ukraine use battle management systems (BMS) like Delta that enable command to share situation awareness information; this study focuses on the distribution of information across a warfighting network. Similar to natural systems, where autonomous agents, such as ants and bees, follow a set of simple rules, a BMS is a network of bases and electronic warfighting platforms that have military assets as agents within the network, guided by the defense doctrine. The rationale for the workability of such a system is based on each subsystem being reliable when multiple subsystems interact. However, the potential permutations and combinations of interactions can cause unpredictable negative or positive feedback loops, resulting in unpredictable and unwanted outcomes. The results of emergent behavior are unexpected and sometimes unwanted in areas such as intelligence, and wireless networks. Understanding emergent behavior is imperative in understanding complex engineering systems, and to present new insights, and take practical steps toward improving complex systems design and analysis. This paper presents the BMS and networks with examples of user-defined system integration of the network soldier concept. We believe that Ukrainian and other armies can directly benefit from utilising meta cybernetics, meta metasystem model analysis to control emergence.

Improving defensive air battle management by solving a stochastic dynamic assignment problem via approximate dynamic programming

Military air battle managers face several challenges when directing operations during quickly evolving combat scenarios. These scenarios require rapid assignment decisions to engage moving targets having dynamic flight paths. In defensive operations, the success of a sequence of air battle management decisions is reflected by the friendly force’s ability to maintain air superiority and defend friendly assets. We develop a Markov decision process (MDP) model of a stochastic dynamic assignment problem, named the Air Battle Management Problem (ABMP), wherein a set of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) must defend an asset from cruise missiles arriving stochastically over time. Attaining an exact solution using traditional dynamic programming techniques is computationally intractable. Hence, we utilize an approximate dynamic programming (ADP) technique known as approximate policy iteration with least squares temporal differences (API-LSTD) learning to find high-quality solutions to the ABMP. We create a simulation environment in conjunction with a generic yet representative combat scenario to illustrate how the ADP solution compares in quality to a reasonable, closest-intercept benchmark policy. Our API-LSTD policy improves mean success rate by 2.8% compared to the benchmark policy and offers an 81.7% increase in the frequency with which the policy performs perfectly. Moreover, we find the increased success rate of the ADP policy is, on average, equivalent to the success rate attained by the benchmark policy when using a 20% faster UCAV. These results inform military force management and defense acquisition decisions and aid in the development of more effective tactics, techniques, and procedures.

An IndoorGeoBML Model Based IORP Algorithm for Indoor Operation

Indoor military operations play a vital part in modern urban warfare. Decision making in indoor operations is quite complicated due to the complex of the indoor spatial environment. However, the study of the characteristics and features of indoor operations is scarce. To help commanders make decisions in indoor operations, a model to represent the information of the building and an algorithm to perform route planning is needed. There have been some studies in the field of search and rescue problems, but these did not study the enemy force, which has a lot of uncertainties and plays a vital role in indoor operations. To solve this problem, this paper first proposes an innovative IndoorGeoBML (Indoor Geospatial Battle Management Language) model to accurately describe the indoor environment. We define six categories of information in IndoorGeoBML model: geometry information, navigation information, semantic information, outdoor information, intelligence information, and event information, which accurately, dynamically, and comprehensively describe the environment in the building. Then based on the IndoorGeoBML model, this paper researches the route planning in indoor operations. There are two types of indoor route planning problems. One is single destination route planning, the other is a searching route planning, which needs to plan paths to search the whole building. To deal with these two kinds of route planning problems, based on IndoorGeoBML model, this paper introduces a new algorithm: the IORP (Indoor Operation Route Planning) algorithm. Finally, this paper implements some experiments on a building with IORP algorithm dealing with the two kinds of route planning problems. For single destination route planning, the result shows that the enemy capability, traversing time, and own casualties of our proposed algorithm are 779.2, 801, and 12.5, which is at least 9.9%, 9.2%, and 7.5% lower compared to other algorithms. For searching route planning, the result shows that the whole time for searching decreases from 3044 s to 2673 s, and the number of squads decreases from 8 to 5. The evaluation of the model and algorithm shows a significant improvement in time and casualties, which will help commanders make better decision in indoor operation.

PACS.i - A Complexity Theory based Framework for Battle Management

A Platform based on Complexity Theory will consist of domain specific framework, dynamics, and systems. PACS.i is a framework through modern combat missions can be conveniently managed. PACS stand for Planner, Analyst, Commander and Soldier. While Planner and Analyst define pre and post battle view, soldier models frog’s view of combat in execution and commander bird’s view of same. These roles should handle Population, Spatial, Temporal and Causal dynamics (with their sub-classes). Also four types of Systems - regular, complex, chaos-based and stochastic can realize these architectures with varied benefits and losses. This paper explores the relation between roles, dynamics, and systems. PACS.i framework is result of synergy between all three of these.

A language to comprehend and manage distributed worlds

The paper presents and discusses the details of the Spatial Grasp Language (SGL), including its philosophy, methodology, syntax, semantics, and implementation in distributed systems. As a key element of the developed Spatial Grasp Model and Technology, SGL has been used in nu-merous applications and publications, including seven books. This inspired us to devote the cur-rent paper exclusively to the main features of this language and comparison with other lan-guages as a tribute to its impact on the Distributed Management Project at the National Acade-my of Sciences, with strong international participation and support. The comparison with other programming languages shows high level, simplicity, and compactness of the obtained solu-tions, which are explained by the fact that SGL operates directly on distributed networked bod-ies in a holistic, parallel, self-navigation and pattern matching mode. This effectively puts up-side down the established practice and opinion that parallel and distributed computing is essen-tially more complex than sequential programming. In comparison with specialized battle man-agement languages oriented on command and control of military campaigns, the SGL pro-gramming example shows high clarity and efficiency for expressing campaigns with spatial movement and maintenance of the needed resources, also confirming its universal ability for extended applications in similar areas. The relation of SGL to natural languages is shown where globally recursive SGL organization can be directly used for describing and analyzing natural language structures of any volume and complexity, just by adding new rules to the SGL defini-tion. SGL can also effectively substitute natural languages for a high-level and quick definition of complex spatial problems and their solutions due to its power, compactness, and formula-like recursive nature.

AlphaMosaic: An Artificially Intelligent Battle Management Architecture

Warfare is increasing in complexity, speed, and scale—not only due to enhanced technological capabilities but also from the employment methodologies associated with them. Incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) technology into this realm is a cogent solution to help address these complications because of the reduced cost, reduced risk to human life, and increased capability to rapidly adapt to changing environments. However, the introduction of AI comes with a host of new considerations. If AI is to be successfully integrated into air combat, humans must be included in the AI processing loop, and human interaction with AI decision loops must be frictionless. Additionally, AI-supported battle management systems must be designed for high and increasing human trust across dynamically changing scenarios. This paper presents AlphaMosaic, an AI battle manager developed as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Air Combat Evolution program that is designed to incorporate human feedback in a manner conducive to true manned–unmanned aircraft teaming in beyond visual range air-combat scenarios.

The Role of General and Specific Cognitive Abilities in Predicting Performance of Three Occupations: Evidence from Bifactor Models

Cognitive abilities are related to job performance. However, there is less agreement about the relative contribution of general versus specific cognitive abilities to job performance. Similarly, it is not clear how cognitive abilities operate in the context of complex occupations. This study assessed the role of cognitive abilities on the performance of three aviation-related jobs: flying, navigation, and air battle management (ABM). Correlated-factor and bifactor models were used to draw a conclusion about the predictive relations between cognitive abilities and job performance. Overall, the importance of particular cognitive abilities tends to vary across the three occupations, and each occupation has different sets of essential abilities. Importantly, the interplay of general versus specific abilities is different across occupations, and some specific abilities also show substantial predictive power.

C4I-Cyber Command & Control Supremacy: Why It’s More Critical Than AI & Quantum Supremacy & What You Can Do about It? Security in Post-COVID Virtual Era Beyond Data, Models, Algorithms

Virtual Conference Presentation Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKEWHOPOhy0 :Despite exponential improvements in Data, Models, and, Algorithms and advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Quantum Computing technologies, the bar on national and organizational Security has been raised by COVID19 global disruptions that include ongoing global cyber-attacks. As world’s first, foremost, and, largest Digital Transformation Network that pioneered Digital and Virtual Organizations practices spanning Silicon Valley, Wall Street, Pentagon, and, worldwide organizations, our latest Air Force Research Lab Ventures are advancing C4I-Cyber Command & Control Practices, Technologies, Ventures, and Networks to meet the post-COVID19 Risk Management realities. In spite of latest AI and Quantum Computing capabilities powering Business-IT Performance, COVID19 has highlighted the critical significance of Resilience and Sustainability of Command and Control (C2) capabilities of Systems powering National Defense & Space, Critical Infrastructures, all Enterprises, and, Intra- and Inter-Enterprise Networks for organizational, national, and, global survival. Given unprecedented global and national cyber-attacks, critical Systems need to advance beyond C2 to include focus on Adversarial C2 and Counter-Adversarial C2 capabilities to survive and thrive. Drawing upon our latest contributions to advancing US Global and National Defense & Space capabilities spanning Air-Space-Cyberspace such as the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) Joint All Domain Command & Control (JADC2), our latest State of New York Cybersecurity Conference presentation will help Cyber Security and Risk Management professionals, managers, and, leaders advance Beyond Data, Beyond Models, and, Beyond Algorithms to effectively preempt risks posed by the latest and greatest adversarial threats. We shall build upon our Practices advancing upon the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Risk Management and Risk Engineering frameworks for AI, Machine Learning, Quantitative, Cyber, Crypto, and, Quantum Risk Computing to counter the C2 risks for enterprises, systems, and, infrastructures – commercial, government, military, and other – connected to the Internet.(Conference Session Abstract Submitted Prior to the Conference Presentation Date.)

Technology-Driven Revolutions in Military Affairs

Abstract The term Revolutions in Military Affair (rma) was originally coined by the Soviets realizing that the US planned to utilize electronics and computers to improve both its weapons and battle management. Other such revolutions were caused by the emergence of aircraft, submarines, mechanized warfare, precision-guided munitions (pgms), unmanned vehicles and Net-Centric-Warfare. Beside its effect on fighting, military technology also affects the public and its leadership. Several technological developments, such as rockets and drones, cyberwarfare, and homemade explosives and chemical and biological weapons, are already changing current concepts and conduct of warfare through their direct effect on warfighting and by their potential effect on the public and its leadership. Consequently, rmas should be analyzed in terms of the linkages between the rear, where chaos can be created, and the front, where the armed forces typically operate.

A Tobruq Legacy többnemzeti légvédelmi rakéta harcászati gyakorlatsorozat bemutatása, főbb tapasztalatai

Magyarország – alapító nemzetként – 2015 óta vesz részt az évenként megrendezett Tobruq Legacy1 többnemzeti légvédelmi rakéta harcászati gyakorlaton. A gyakorlat célja a különböző paraméterekkel rendelkező légvédelmi rakétafegyver-rendszerek közötti interoperabilitás megteremtése, illetve a NATO-ban alkalmazott tűz- és harcvezetési eljárások egységesítése, valamint gyakorlása. A gyakorlat kiváló lehetőséget nyújt hazánk légvédelmi katonái számára, hogy nemzetközi környezetben bizonyítsák felkészültségüket és gyarapítsák tudásukat.
 KULCSSZAVAK: Tobruq Legacy, légvédelmi rakéta, éleslövészet

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF PERSONNEL TRACKING AND COMBAT VEHICLE BASED ON MICROCONTROLLERS

- Training is a necessity to achieve a level of professionalism in carrying out the main tasks of the Indonesian National Army (TNI) to safeguard the Sovereign State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI). With the development of technology, the flow of information that is well ordered, fast and interconnected is very important in a command control function that is packaged into a battle management. This study aims to create a system that can provide information support to the Unit Commander in giving command instructions to his troops. The information includes coordinates, altitude, balance, speed and compass, and is integrated with LCO (Lambert Conical Orthomophic) Map which can be integrated into Google Satellites so that tracking and monitoring of troops will be easier. Based on the results of tests that have been carried out it can be analyzed that the value of the error presentation of the actual measurements with measurements on the program is not too large. The comparison obtained is less than 2% so that by using the system it is expected that each unit can operate optimally and efficiently.