Level Of Small Units Research Articles

Estimating attrition coefficients for the Lanchester equations from small-unit combat models

The Lanchester equations are a valuable tool for analyzing attrition warfare and the impact of new technologies on the battlefield. However, uncertainties regarding the numerical values of attrition coefficients pose a challenge in accurately applying these equations. To address this, entity-based combat simulations focusing on small-unit operations can offer insights into calculating attrition coefficients and analyzing the effects of new technology on the battlefield. This study outlines the development of such entity-based simulations and the associated derivation of attrition coefficients from the results. One method involves using combat simulation to determine the combat multiplier factor associated with a new technology and multiplying the attrition coefficients accordingly. The second method involves basing the attrition coefficients solely on the results of the model. This paper explores each of these methods through two case studies, both of which use the Infantry Warrior Simulation (IWARS). The first case study examines the Battle of Mosul, analyzing the impact of drone technology on ISIS insurgents and the Iraqi army. The second case study investigates the influence of a more accurate rifle in a conflict involving rural and urban combat. It is important to note that these models provide approximations for attrition coefficients and are subject to inherent limitations. Nonetheless, they offer value by capturing the broader implications of integrating technological changes at the small-unit level.

Territorial Subdivision of the Megalopolis Population by the Ethnic Trait in Relation to the Problem of Creating Genetic Databases. St. Petersburg

On the basis of the materials of the 2010 All-Russia Population Census in St. Petersburg, an analysis of uneven settlement of ethnic groups over the city districts was carried out. Maps reflecting the ethnic topography of the megalopolis have been constructed. Using the trait “ethnicity” as a quasi-genetic marker, territorial stratification of the megacity population was assessed on two levels of population structure: for the level of large units (districts), Fst = 0.310 × 10–2; for the level of small units (municipalities), Fst = 0.659 × 10–2. Sections of the city characterized by the greatest ethnic diversity were identified. These results should be taken into account when forming databases for the purposes of DNA-based identification in the population of St. Petersburg.

Preparing for War: The Emergence of the Modern U.S. Army, 1815–1917 by J. P. Clark

Reviewed by: Preparing for War: The Emergence of the Modern U.S. Army, 1815–1917 by J. P. Clark Wayne Wei-Siang Hsieh (bio) Preparing for War: The Emergence of the Modern U.S. Army, 1815–1917 j. p. clark Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2017 336 pp. J. P. Clark's Preparing for War: The Emergence of the Modern U.S. Army, 1815–1917 fills an important gap in our scholarly understanding of an important institution—the nineteenth-century US Army officer corps. Its wider event horizon due to its uncharacteristically broad chronological range allows for a study of different generations of professional officers that traces how the American army's leadership cadre evolved in relation to developments in both American military history and larger civilian society. Each generation of officers defined, debated, and experienced distinctly [End Page 599] different conceptions of military professionalism. Clark's analytical approach allows his monograph to discern both the American Army's institutional continuities and the significant changes it experienced over the course of the nineteenth century leading up to World War I. Clark lays out four generations of officers—a foundational generation of veterans of the War of 1812 and antebellum graduates of West Point, a Civil War generation that fought in the nineteenth century's longest conflict, a post−Civil War composite generation of mostly West Point graduates grappling with the earlier conflict's consequences, and a Progressive generation commissioned after 1890 that imported civilian ideas of centralization and bureaucratization into the army. Clark's approach allows him to examine the interaction between predominately military factors (e.g. the size and scale of American wars and the structures of American military institutions) and larger trends in American culture and society. Like many historians, between the analytical poles of continuity and change, Clark gravitates toward the latter—and he also locates the primary causal forces of change in larger American society. As he puts it, "the vertical ties of continuity within the military are less important than the horizontal ties across society. Therefore, each professional generation is more a product of its time than a creation of military institutions" (9). Clark's approach thus eschews an abstract and social-scientific notion of professionalism, perhaps best embodied in Samuel P. Huntington's The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations (1957). While that work is dated and challenged by most historians, if still cited due to its importance and influence, American military institutions (as Clark himself well knows) remain heavily influenced by conceptions of professionalism that claim to be timeless and enduring. Even the use of history in the American military's educational apparatus tends to gravitate toward the discovery of "lessons learned," which can be applied across wide stretches of time and place. In contrast, perhaps the most trenchant lesson Clark draws from his work for the current American profession of arms is a generational gap in the present US Army between general officers who led troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as senior officers, and junior officers who began their careers in those conflicts at the small unit level. As Clark puts it, "bridging the gaps between these quite different frames of reference is not impossible, but it is unlikely because the bureaucratic artifacts that give an army substance—doctrine, regulations, training plans—rarely [End Page 600] make explicit the assumptions on which they are based. … The most insidious divides are those that go unnoticed" (xi). Among most professional academic historians, Preparing for War would find ready agreement regarding its argument for the primacy of historical change over political scientists' search for timeless continuities, but where Clark's work makes its biggest contribution is in its longer distinctive chronological spread. William Skelton's An American Profession of Arms: The Army Officer Corps, 1784–1861 (1993) covers the creation of a professional officer corps, but excludes from its coverage the Civil War. It also covers the creation of an American military profession, as opposed to its continuing evolution. Samuel Watson's magisterial two-volume study of the Jacksonian and antebellum US Army, Jackson's Sword: The Army Officer Corps on the American Frontier, 1810–1821 (2012) and Peacekeepers and...

The use of personal hearing protection in hostile territory and the effect of health promotion activity: advice falling upon deaf ears

IntroductionNoise-induced hearing loss is a significant cause of morbidity among serving soldiers despite provision of a range of personal hearing protection (PHP) and education and training. It appears that soldiers...

A Team Cognitive Readiness Framework for Small-Unit Training

The modern battlefield is characterized by a need to mitigate the effects of creative tactics by insurgent enemies. At the small-unit level, this need requires coordination by team members highly proficient in battle drills and immediate actions. Furthermore, these teams must demonstrate a facility in adaptive decision making and flexible action execution to effectively respond to threats. At issue is whether current training theory can appropriately support this need to enable teams that are not only procedurally ready but also cognitively ready. In this article, the authors provide a theoretical framework meant to guide the development of training for team cognitive readiness (TCR). Beginning with perceptual processing and cue recognition, elevating to problem solving and decision making, and scaling up to complex coordinative processes, TCR requires a comprehensive theoretical framework capable of addressing the varied processes and performance demands at the small-unit level. In service of this need, the authors provide a framework to improve the understanding of, and to improve adaptive coordination in, teamwork in dynamic environments.

Impact of findings from grey literature on the outcomes of systematic reviews on interventions to prevent obesity among children: a systematic review

Impact of findings from grey literature on the outcomes of systematic reviews on interventions to prevent obesity among children: a systematic review

A Cognitively-Based Competency Model for Small Unit Counter-IED Performance

Competency modeling is the process by which skills and areas of knowledge to perform a task are identified and associated with that job, task, or mission. This technique is useful to uncover which particular knowledge and skill areas are required for successful completion of a specific job or task. This paper describes a cognitively-based competency model developed to understand the types of tasks performed at the small unit level for counter-IED operations for the purpose of developing assessment items. We conducted data collection using a simulation interview protocol with Warfighters, and multiple raters coded each interview to develop the competency model. The model consists of six competencies, some of which have multiple sub-competencies, and the underlying KSAs. This process is particularly useful in applied settings, and the pairing of this type of data collection method and the competency model process can be used in various domains, particularly cognitively challenging ones.

Comparative Analysis of Infrastructure Assessment Methodologies at the Small Unit Level

This paper presents a comparative analysis of three different infrastructure assessment tools currently used by the U.S. Army’s combat engineer small units (squad, platoon, company). The infrastructure assessment tools included one pen and paper checklist and two software-based tools based on specialized handheld hardware for data collection in combat conditions. Evaluation was conducted using macroergonomic and applied cognitive task analysis methods with soldiers of varying levels of infrastructure assessment expertise. Each assessment method was evaluated based on performance (time, errors, and accuracy) and usability (ergonomic and cognitive challenges). We found that soldiers documented more accurate data using handheld digital devices instead of pen-and-paper assessment forms, but there was little difference in time between the methods. Contrary to initial expectation, we also found that most soldiers prefer a slightly more difficult to use handheld assessment device with customized checklists rathe...

Observations from the Sinai: The Boredom Factor

This paper discusses the experiences of the first U.S. Army Combat Battalion assigned to the Sinai Multinational Force and Observers. Its leaders were concerned about a number of issues, among them unit cohesion and boredom. Squad level competition was found a major factor in establishing cohesion at the small unit level. Boredom became an issue among the soldiers early in the mission. Close analysis revealed that the major themes relating to boredom most frequently heard were (1) underutilization, (2) cultural deprivation, (3) lack of privacy, and (4) isolation. From the enlisted man's perspective, boredom was a metaphor symbolizing perceived loss of control of one's time and space. The authors make two general observations. First, peacekeeping is a form of low intensity conflict. Stress is due in part to the lack of experience in such an operation. Second, the unit rotation system used by the battalion results in a loss of psychosocial history, and troops are stressed by unmet expectations.

Quartermaster Operations in the Forty-Second Virginia Infantry Regiment

QUARTERMASTER OPERATIONS IN THE FORTY-SECOND VIRGINIA INFANTRY REGIMENT John D. ChapL· Successful military operations depend on timely and continuous logistics support. Equipment, clothing, subsistence, and ordnance provided at critical times during operations enable commanders to exploit battlefield success and widen the range of tactical alternatives. Continuity of logistics support during the Civil War became more crucial in view of the seasonal nature of the campaigns, which generally included an eight- to ten-month fighting season offset by a two- to fourmonth "winter quarters" season during which active operations usually ceased. Regular, consistent logistics support enabled an army to avoid exhaustion before the fighting season ended, and, during the winter quarters season, limited the consequences of exposure to the wet, cold, and snow of fall and winter. Furthermore, an army that achieved continuous supply during the winter quarters season would be better prepared to begin combat operations in the spring. Studies of both the Army of Tennessee and the Army of Northern Virginia have established how the inability of the Confederate supply system to provide timely and continous support affected combat operations of armies and corps.1 However, supply organization and operations of the regiment—the smallest tactical unit possessing its own logistical capability—and the impact of supply on combat at that level lack a detailed analysis. Such an analysis, a microcosmic view, would 1 Richard G. Goff, Confederate Supply (Durham, N.C: Duke Univ. Press, 1969); James L. Nichols, The Confederate Quartermaster in the Trans-Mississippi (Austin, Tex.: Univ. of Texas Press, 1964); Douglas S. Freeman, Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command, 3 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1946); Thomas L. Connelly, Army of the Heartland: The Army of Tennessee, 1861-1862 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1972) and Autumn of Glory: Army of Tennessee, 1862-1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1974). b CIVIL WAR HISTORY not only provide depth to previous studies of larger organizations, but would also promote a better understanding of how the success of those larger organizations ultimately depended upon the performance of the regiment. The quartermaster records of the Forty-second Virginia Infantry Regiment provide a basis for closely examining the impact of logistics at the small unit level. Moreover, the Forty-second appears to have been a typical Confederate regiment in several respects. For example, only three of the officers of the Forty-second possessed any formal military training from West Point or the Virginia Military Institute.2 Regimental leaders became competent, but were not exceptional; only two would achieve the rank of full colonel. The men were primarily farmers, with a scattering of mechanics, tradesmen, and a few professional people, principally lawyers and doctors.3 Like many Confederate regiments, the Forty-second saw extensive service. Following duty in western Virginia in 1861, the regiment served with General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's Army of the Valley District through June 1862. The Forty-second then participated in all the operations of the Second Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, until the surrender at Appomattox in 1865. At times, the regiment performed brilliantly. In the "Deep Cut" along the unfinished railroad at Second Manassas the regiment expended its ammunition, then stood fast, throwing rocks at the enemy. Other times, the Forty-second's record was abysmal. For example, it refused to go forward at Chancellorsville and fled the field in the battle of the Wilderness. Furthermore, as in many other Confederate regiments, death in the Forty-second came principally from causes other than battle. Battle action claimed 179 men of the Forty-second, while 270 died of disease, imprisonment, accidents, execution by firing squad, and deaths from causes not specified in the records.4 The most common element shared by the Forty-second and the other regiments of the Confederate army was the seasonal nature of 2 Virginia Military Institute, Register of Former Cadets (Lexington, Va., 1957), 9, 13; William McCauley, History of Roanoke County, Salem, Roanoke City, Virginia (Chicago : Biographical Publishing Co., 1902), 56. 3 Occupations were drawn from: National Archives and Record Service, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers who Served in Organizations from the State of Virginia (Microfilm No. M324, Rolls 871-76), hereafter cited...