Military Areas Research Articles

Study on the Influence of Vacuum Vapor Phase Soldering Process Technology on SiP Component

Vapor phase soldering (VPS) is used in the assembly of highly reliable electronic products for aerospace, military, and industrial area for the advantages of heat transfer coefficient, good temperature uniformity, and controllable maximum soldering temperature. VPS is usually used for PCB (Printed Circuit Board) and complex components. However, little research has been done on the application of VPS process technology on the SiP (System in Package) component in the process of solder ball or solder column package. In this work, we investigated the influence of the vacuum VPS process on the SiP component. The advantages of VPS and vacuum process were discussed and the maximum shear strength of solder joints in the vacuum process was calculated. The vacuum process has no impact on the internal structure of the SiP component.

Experimental Study on the Vibration Transfer Function of a Small Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

This paper presents the experimental results about vibration characteristics of a small autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) named OKPO 300. The autonomy of AUVs leads to the increased use of AUVs in scientific, military, and commercial areas because their autonomy makes it possible for AUVs to be utilized instead of humans in hazardous missions such as mine countermeasure missions (MCMs). It is impossible to use devices with electro-magnetic waves for gathering information in an underwater environment. Only sonar systems that use sound waves can be utilized underwater, and the performance of sonar can strongly affect the autonomy of AUVs. Since a thruster system that combines a motor and propeller in a single structure is widely used as the propulsion system of an AUV and is mounted on the outside of the AUV’s stern, the vibration generated by the thruster system can be transferred throughout the shell of the AUV from the stern to the bow. The transferred vibration can affect the performance of various sonar systems that are installed in the AUV such as side-scan sonar or forward-looking sonar. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the effect of the transferred vibration of the AUV on the sonar systems. Even if various numerical methods were used to analyze the vibration problem of surface ships, it would be hard to apply numerical methods of the surface ships to identify the vibration phenomena of an AUV because of the underwater environment. In this work, an experimental study with OKPO 300 and an impact hammer was carried out to analyze vibration features of an actual small AUV in the air. Based on the experimental results, the frequency response function of vibration is presented. Based on the experimental results of this study, the natural frequency of OKPO 300 was confirmed, and the possibility of estimating the vibration characteristics of AUV using the transfer function method was shown.

Site Selection of Combined Offshore Wind and Wave Energy Farms: A Systematic Review

Growing energy demand worldwide and onshore limitations have increased interest in offshore renewable energy exploitation. A combination of offshore renewable energy resources such as wind and wave energy can produce stable power output at a lower cost compared to a single energy source. Consequently, identifying the best locations for constructing combined offshore renewable energy farms is crucial. This paper investigates the technical, economic, social, and environmental aspects of Combined Offshore Wind and Wave Energy Farm (COWWEF) site selection. Past literature was evaluated using a systematic review method to synthesize, criticize, and categorize study regions, dataset characteristics, constraints, evaluation criteria, and methods used for the site selection procedure. The results showed that most studied regions belong to European countries, and numerical model outputs were mainly used in the literature as met-ocean data due to the limited coverage and low spatiotemporal resolution of buoy and satellite observations. Environmental and marine usage are the main constraints in the site selection process. Among all constraints, shipping lanes, marine protected areas, and military exercise areas were predominately considered to be excluded from the potential sites for COWWEF development. The technical viability and economic feasibility of project deployment are emphasized in the literature. Resource assessment and distance to infrastructures were mostly evaluated among techno-economic criteria. Wind and wave energy power are the most important criteria for evaluating feasibility, followed by water depth, indicators of variability and correlation of the energy resources, and distance to the nearest port. Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) methods and resource-based analysis were the most-used evaluation frameworks. Resource-based studies mainly used met-ocean datasets to determine site technical and operational performance (i.e., resource availability, variability, and correlation), while MCDM methods were applied when a broader set of criteria were evaluated. Based on the conducted review, it was found that the literature lacks evaluation of seabed conditions (seabed type and slope) and consideration of uncertainty involved in the COWWEF site selection process. In addition, the market analysis and evaluation of environmental impacts of COWWEF development, as well as impacts of climate change on combined exploitation of offshore wind and wave energy, have rarely been investigated and need to be considered in future studies. Finally, by providing a comprehensive repository of synthesized and categorized information and research gaps, this study represents a road map for decision-makers to determine the most suitable locations for COWWEF developments.

Reliability Theory and Practice for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Due to rapid advancements on the Internet of Things (IoT), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, are transforming numerous military and civil application areas. UAVs aim to enhance the production efficiency, ensure safety, and reduce risk, particularly protecting the human workforce in the case of harsh and dangerous environments. Due to the mission-critical, business-critical, or safety-critical nature of the UAV applications, it is pivotal that UAVs perform reliably to deliver the required service during the intended mission time. Therefore, reliability is one of the essential requirements for designing and operating UAVs. This article presents a critical review of UAV reliability literature in both theoretical and practical research, pinpointing failure causes and reliability challenges of UAV systems, classifying and reflecting on the reliability modeling, analysis, and design methods for UAV systems and key subsystems. Some open research problems and opportunities are also discussed to highlight potential new challenges for designing reliable and resilient UAVs and UAV-assisted IoT systems.

The botany of the Stony Head Training Area: new records for a biodiverse remnant in northern Tasmania, Australia

A flora survey of the Stony Head Training Area, northern Tasmania, was conducted in 2020–2021 as a collaboration between the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery’s Expeditions of Discovery and the Australian Biological Resources Study Bush Blitz programs. With a long historical use as an artillery range, the 5000-ha area contains a range of geologies, has a low profile with average elevations under 100 m asl, and its vegetation consists largely of heathy woodlands and coastal heathlands. It contains a range of relatively undisturbed, high-quality native habitats and populations of several threatened species. The survey targeted vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens, and recorded a total of 575 taxa. Nine lichens are new records for Tasmania — <i>Buellia hypostictella</i>, <i>Caloplaca gilfillaniorum</i>, <i>Cladonia subradiata</i>, <i>Graphis geraensis</i>, <i>Lecanora intumescens</i> and <i>Opegrapha diaphoriza</i> — all previously also known from mainland Australia, and <i>Micarea rhabdogena</i>, <i>M. xanthonica</i> and <i>Pseudothelomma ocellatum</i>, which represent first records for the Southern Hemisphere. Biogeographical and ecological patterns in the flora, the contribution of vegetation remnants to flora conservation, and the ongoing importance of surveys and alpha-taxonomy for documenting biodiversity are discussed. Our findings are consistent with a body of research showing a trend of healthy populations of threatened taxa within military training areas.

ИНФОРМАЦИОННЫЕ ТЕХНОЛОГИИ НА ОСНОВЕ ЗНАНИЙ В СОЕДИНЕНИЯХ ВООРУЖЕННЫХ СИЛ

The subject of the study is the methods of intellectualization of automated systems and complexesin the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation based on the use of knowledge-based models and technologies,as well as reactive wireless sensor networks (RWSN), which have a great prospect of application,especially when conducting local special operations by mobile tactical groups. The relevance ofthe work is due to the fact that the dynamics of a modern clash involves the concentration of all types ofinformation when making decisions that are adequate to the combat situation, which makes it possibleto implement a new approach to the conduct of hostilities based on the integration of systems of all levelsand types of troops. The form of integration is the tactical group. The implementation of the approachrequires the construction of a knowledge cycle when making decisions, including the stages ofperception, representation, awareness and their replenishment based on new architectures for the constructionand use of information technologies. The aim of the work is to study the possibility of buildingan information system for providing data for one of the key stages - the stage of acquiring knowledgefrom distributed sources when using responsive sensor networks as the primary element of the system.Main results. Studies have shown that the most effective solution is based on the use of SCADA tools andsensor networks through their integration, as well as hybridization with expert knowledge. The architectureof the tactical group information system is proposed, which provides situational awareness on theentire tactical spectrum of combat operations and decision-making under severe time constraints. Sucha system can be considered as one of the main key factors for creating superiority over the enemy. Anoverview of possible applications of RWSN in military areas is given. Their high efficiency in performingcombat missions is shown. Practical significance. The expediency of applying the results obtained inthe design of RWSN is substantiated.

Infrared Image Pre-Processing and IR/RGB Registration with FPGA Implementation

Infrared imaging sensors are frequently used in thermal signature detection applications in industrial, automotive, military and many other areas. However, advanced infrared detectors are generally associated with high costs and complexity. Infrared detectors usually necessitate a thermoelectric heater–cooler for temperature stabilization and various computationally complex preprocessing algorithms for fixed pattern noise (FPN) correction. In this paper, we leverage the benefits of uncooled focal plane arrays and describe a complete digital circuit design for Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)-based infrared image acquisition and pre-processing. The proposed design comprises temperature compensation, non-uniformity correction, defective pixel correction cores, spatial image transformation and registration with RGB images. When implemented on Xilinx Ultrascale+ FPGA, the system achieves a throughput of 30 frames per second using the Fraunhofer IMS Digital 17 μm QVGA-IRFPA with a microbolometer array size of 320 × 240 pixels and an RGB camera with a 1024 × 720 resolution. The maximum ratio of the standard deviation to the mean of 0.35% was achieved after FPN correction.

Sound propagation for a low height impulsive source over an absorbing ground

Noise contours around military training areas are calculated by using: a) the measured source strength for the impulsive sources and b) the calculated sound propagation using a representative set of meteorological situations. For high-energy impulsive sounds the source strength is measured at distances beyond 100 meters, where peak levels are below 154 dB. A linear model is used to correct for the sound propagation from the source to the measurement position. In this way a linear source strength is determined that can be used with linear sound propagation models. Previous results showed that the source strengths at higher frequencies (above 250 to 500 Hz) were overestimated when the impulsive source is on the ground. Apparently, the calculated sound propagation over an absorbing ground, used to determine the source strength, is accounting for too much ground effect. Note that the actual meteorology and ground absorption are measured during the measurements. In this paper an impulsive reference source is used at two heights and the sound propagation is measured and calculated at increasing distances. It is shown that the measured ground effect saturates for higher frequencies. Next, an unknown impulsive source was measured and the effect of saturation was demonstrated.

How Russia’s war strengthens the West

This article highlights three key areas of Western adaptation to Russia’s war against Ukraine with advice for how to optimize them going forward. First is the immediate strengthening of NATO’s conventional defense against Russia, whose sustainability will depend on European contributions, as the US increasingly will focus on Asia. Second is the preservation of joint resilience against both Russia and China, in which NATO should stick to the narrow military areas and the EU to the broader civilian areas. Third is the question of Ukraine as part of the West, where the former’s poor reform record and the latter’s unwillingness to intervene militarily on its behalf draw the realistic scenario of the country’s continued association.

Assessment of social vulnerability to forest fire and hazardous facilities in Germany

In recent years, Germany has seen an increase in forest fires, and many fires have occurred in military training areas that are difficult to access for firefighting. While casualties are still low and mostly restricted to firefighting personnel, settlements are also increasingly threatened. Increasing impacts from extreme events due to climate change will likely increase the ignition and spread of fires. More people are being affected by fires, and in need of external help to evacuate and cope with the resulting damages and losses. Forest fires also threaten military training site, with additional risks created by the presence of ammunition depots.Despite this hazard scenario, Germany so far lacks an overview of the spatial occurrence of forest fires and the related risk. This study develops a spatial exposure and social vulnerability assessment of settlements to forest fires in Germany. The results reveal that social vulnerability is an important variable in determining which settlements are potentially exposed to fire. Areas exposed to fire risk are characterised by having a higher proportion of women, a higher-than-average age, a higher number of young people under 18 years, a higher number of persons over 65 years and foreigners than the national average. Furthermore, exposed communities are characterised by higher rates of unoccupied housing units and lower living space per dwelling, as well as living in areas with high population densities within forested areas. The results can help to improve emergency management and spatial planning to prevent the development of fire risk areas.

Unveiling the impact of traditional land practices on natural vegetation using large-scale exclosures: National borders and military bases

Attributing the extent of changes in vegetation cover which are the result of human actions or of climate variability is challenging. The Negev Desert, bordered by two countries and the Palestinian Authority and crossing three climate zones, provides a natural laboratory for unveiling the impact of land practices on natural vegetation. Desert vegetation on both sides of the border was traditionally subject to herds grazing and bush gathering, but in recent decades; grazing policy, military training areas, and nature protection have excluded traditional uses. We used remotely sensed derived proxies of vegetation (the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and surface albedo from satellite images inside and outside of the large exclosures to estimate the anthropogenic impact on vegetation cover in the past four decades, and ultimately isolate the effect of traditional land uses on vegetation cover. Our results showed that the cross-border differences in land use led to a significant impact on vegetation cover outside the exclosed areas. These cross-border differences were more pronounced in the semi-arid - arid climate regions and decreased in the hyper-arid climate region. Exclosures provide a natural experiment which enables us the testing of the factors driving changes in natural vegetation.

Fuzzy Logic Based Load Balanced Clustering for Network Lifetime Enhancement in WSN

Large number of small sensor nodes exists in WSN’s for sensing and collecting information from the environment. In today’s time, these sensor nodes were applied in under water, military area, health care, earthquake sensing and in dedicated areas with recent technologies. Sensor nodes have limited life time and have supplementary network life. Network lifecycle depends on many factors such as connectivity, residual energy, topology types, single hop, multi hop, distance from base station, distance to cluster heads and much more. Among the various solutions given, clustering is considered to be good solution and optimal cluster head selection leads to efficient energy consumption. This paper proposes fuzzy based multi-attributes clustering that balances load among sensor nodes and also gives energy efficient clustering. Here we have used some attributes such as delay, residual energy, distance to CH, standard deviation to average network lifetime and standard deviation to residual energy. Results and experimental analysis validates that the proposed methods outperforms other compared algorithms.

Stress management strategies in future military personnel

The research deals with the issue of identifying stressful situations that appear during the introductory Training for the Army of the Czech Republic and strategies for managing them. The research is based on the use of the multidimensional self-observation inventory SVF 78, which more closely analyzes the variability of ways of processing and managing stressful situations in future military personnel and compares positive stress management strategies with the norms of the general population and aims to formulate recommendations for more effective help in coping with stress in the military area.

Free Riding, Network Effects, and Burden Sharing in Defense Cooperation Networks

AbstractHow do states distribute the burdens of collective defense? This paper develops a network theory of burden sharing. We focus on bilateral defense cooperation agreements (DCAs), which promote cooperation in a variety of defense, military, and security issue areas. Using a computational model, we show that DCA partners’ defense spending depends on the network structure of their agreements. In bilateral terms, DCAs increase defense spending by committing states to defense activities and allowing partners to reciprocally punish free riding. However, as a state's local network of defense partnerships grows more densely connected, with many transitive “friend of a friend” relations, DCAs have the countervailing effect of reducing defense spending. The more deeply integrated states are in bilateral defense networks, the less they spend on defense. We distinguish two potential mechanisms behind this effect—one based on efficiency improvements, the other on free riding. An empirical analysis using multilevel inferential network models points more to efficiency than to free riding. Defense networks reduce defense spending, and they do so by allowing countries to produce security more efficiently.

Optimal Deep Convolutional Neural Network for Vehicle Detection in Remote Sensing Images

Object detection (OD) in remote sensing images (RSI) acts as a vital part in numerous civilian and military application areas, like urban planning, geographic information system (GIS), and search and rescue functions. Vehicle recognition from RSIs remained a challenging process because of the difficulty of background data and the redundancy of recognition regions. The latest advancements in deep learning (DL) approaches permit the design of effectual OD approaches. This study develops an Artificial Ecosystem Optimizer with Deep Convolutional Neural Network for Vehicle Detection (AEODCNN-VD) model on Remote Sensing Images. The proposed AEODCNN-VD model focuses on the identification of vehicles accurately and rapidly. To detect vehicles, the presented AEODCNN-VD model employs single shot detector (SSD) with Inception network as a baseline model. In addition, Multiway Feature Pyramid Network (MFPN) is used for handling objects of varying sizes in RSIs. The features from the Inception model are passed into the MFPN for multiway and multiscale feature fusion. Finally, the fused features are passed into bounding box and class prediction networks. For enhancing the detection efficiency of the AEODCNN-VD approach, AEO based hyperparameter optimizer is used, which is stimulated by the energy transfer strategies such as production, consumption, and decomposition in an ecosystem. The performance validation of the presented method on benchmark datasets showed promising performance over recent DL models.

The influence of geopolitical factors on the functioning of tourism in Ukraine

The article examines the key aspects of the prospects of the post-crisis strategic development of the domestic tourism industry after the end of the military conflict – the test of the XXI century, based on the transformational transformations of the industry. The main obstacles of geopolitical instability, which have a significant impact on the formation of the potential of the tourist flow at both the micro and macro levels, are systematized. These include the outflow of sources of funding from the tourism sector of Ukraine, the high risk of staying in certain territories, incomplete reform of the industry in accordance with EU directives, the priority of providing free transportation for the state in military, volunteer or humanitarian areas, etc. A detailed analysis of tax revenues to the state treasury and key statistical indicators of tourism activity in 2023 in accordance with previous years was conducted. A number of reliable and dangerous regions of Ukraine have been identified for planning trips by tourists in compliance with the peculiarities of recreation and tourist activities - permits and restrictions regarding the organization of routes in accordance with the curfew and taking into account the presence of bomb shelters, etc. In addition, it was found that the current dynamics of the tourist flow within the state is characterized by a sharp reduction in the number of visits by tourists from other countries, and the external domestic tourism itself is maintained thanks to the work trips of foreign diplomats, public activists, volunteers, and representatives of mass media. It was found that the deployed military actions on the territory of Ukraine have a serious economic impact on the recovery of international tourism in general. Priority anti-crisis directions for the reconstruction of the studied sphere are proposed in order to ensure the harmonious growth of all regions of Ukraine, taking into account the set goals. The main ones are the formation of state media interest on the part of foreign countries and tourists; building a mass PR company in previously unknown territories; updating the tourism branding of the state with the basis that the safety and protection of tourists is a priority.

Refinement of sensitive azides via in situ generated azole-based metal-organic frameworks towards stable energetic materials.

Energetic materials (EMs) have been widely employed in both military and civilian areas for nearly two centuries. The introduction of high-energy azide anions to assemble energetic metal-organic frameworks (EMOFs) is an efficient strategy to enhance energetic properties. However, azido-based EMOFs always suffer low stabilities to external mechanical stimulation. Herein, we employed an in situ hydrothermal reaction as a technique to refine azide anions with a neutral triazole-cyano-based ligand TrzAt (TrzAt = 2-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)acetonitrile) to yield two tetrazole-based EMOFs, namely, [ZnBr(trmetz)]n1 and [Cd(trmetz)2]n2 (Htrmetz = 5-(1,2,4-triazol-1-ylmethyl)-1H-tetrazole). Compound 1 features a closely packed 2D layered network, while compound 2 exhibits a 3D architecture. With azide anions inlaid into a nitrogen-rich and chelating ligand in the EMOFs, compounds 1 and 2 present remarkable decomposition temperatures (Tdec ≥ 300 °C), low impact sensitivities (IS ≥ 32 J) and low friction sensitivities (FS ≥ 324 N). The calculated heat of detonation (ΔHdet) values of 1 and 2 are 3.496 and 4.112 kJ g-1, respectively. In particular, the ΔHdet value of 2 is higher than that of traditional secondary explosives such as 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT, ΔHdet = 3.720 kJ g-1). These results indicate that EMOFs 1 and 2 may serve as potential replacements for traditional secondary explosives. This work provides a simple and effective strategy to obtain two EMOFs with satisfactory energy densities and reliable stabilities through an in situ hydrothermal technique for desensitization of azide anions.

The effect of prescribed burning on Pulsatilla vernalis at Marma military training area in Sweden

The effect of prescribed burning on Pulsatilla vernalis at Marma military training area in Sweden

The U.S.-Japan Cooperation as part of the Fumio Kishida’s renewed administration strategy

The article outlines the changes in Japan's strategy under the Fumio Kishida’s administration and the areas of interaction with Washington within the framework of Tokyo's new policy. The military, economic, technological and space areas are analyzed.

Expert Consensus on ECG Identification Applied in the Insurance Industry✰

Electrocardiograms (ECGs) have the potential to be used as a reliable source of information for human identity recognition due to their universality, portability, and unique and stable biological identification features. This method enriches and refines existing biometric identification techniques, and is suitable for customer identity identification in the insurance industry. This article has the following objectives: 1) to introduce biometric identification techniques commonly used in the insurance industry, including ECG biometric identification techniques, and their advantages; 2) to discuss major aspects of ECG biometric identification techniques; 3) to systematically review the most recent advances in ECG identification and extraction characteristics from research in China and other countries; 4) to outline the technical aspects of using ECGs for recognizing client identity in the insurance industry; and 5) to discuss the future of ECGs in identity recognition. This article is aimed at further promoting the application of living personal ECG identification techniques in the insurance industry, and extending it to areas including medical insurance, banking, justice, public security, military, government, enterprises, and other departments and areas in which identification is needed to promote social stability and national security.