Models of Combat

In Woodcock, et al. s model, each combatant - or automaton - is endowed with a set of rules with which it can perform certain tasks. Rules are of four basic varieties  

Situation Assessment, such as the determination of whether a given automaton is surrounded by friendly or enemy forces. 

Movement, to define when and how a given automaton can move certain kinds tSee section 3.4.4. 

Combat, which governs the nature of the interaction between opposing force automata a typical rule might be for one automaton to aim fire at another automaton located within some specified fight radius. 

Hierarchical Control, in which a three-level command hierarchy is established each lower-level echelon element keys on those in the next higher echelon on each time step of the evolution. 

---

Chapter 8 describes a number of generalized CA models, including reversible CA, coupled-map lattices, quantum CA, reaction-diffusion models, immunologically motivated CA models, random Boolean networks, sandpile models (in the context of self-organized criticality), structurally dynamic CA (in which the temporal evolution of the value of individual sites of a lattice are dynamically linked to an evolving lattice structure), and simple CA models of combat. 

In 1914, F. W. Lanchester introduced a set of coupled ordinary differential equations-now commonly called the Lanchester Equationsl (LEs)-as models of attrition in modern warfare. Similar ideas were proposed around that time by [chaseSS] and [osip95]. These equations are formally equivalent to the Lotka-Volterra equations used for modeling the dynamics of interacting predator-prey populations [hof98]. The LEs have since served as the fundamental mathematical models upon which most modern theories of combat attrition are based, and are to this day embedded in many state-of-the-art military models of combat. [Taylor] provides a thorough mathematical discussion. 

The dynamic,s underlying EINSTein is patterned after mobile CA rules, and are somewhat reminiscent of Braitenberg s Vehicles [brait84]. Specifically, EINSTein takes a artificial-life-like bottom-up, synthesist approach to the modeling of combat, rather than the more traditional top-down, or reductionist approach,... 

Payoffs to Using Agent-Based Models of Combat... 

The payoff of an agent-based approach is a radically new way of looking at fundamental issues of land combat. Models such as these are emphatically not to be used for prediction rather they are best used to enhance understanding. Specifically, agent-based models of combat are designed to help military theorists... 

General van Riper, during the time when he was Commanding General at the Marine Corps Concept Development Command at Quantico, VA, (1994-1996), approached CNA with an idea for a study that asked. What do all of these new ideas I ve been hearing about - nonlinearity, complexity, complex adaptive systems - have to do with combat Since many at CNA knew of my deep interest in the subject, I was soon asked to direct a project addressing this question a project that has since spawned a follow-on multi-year effort sponsored by the Office of Naval Research to develop an artificial-life model of combat. To say that Lt.Gen van Riper s appear-... 

In this section we introduce a mobile CA model of land combat called EINSTein, developed at the Center for Naviil Analyses for the US Marine Corps. We include a discussion of this model here becau.se it is an interesting blend of CA-like local dynamics and agent-based modeling techniques. 

While the LEs are particularly relevant for the kind of static trench warfare and artillery duels that characterized most of World War I, they are too simple and lack the spatial degrees of freedom to realistically model modern combat. The fundamental problem is that they idealize combat much in the same way as Newton s laws idealize physics. 

Fig. 11.13 Illustration of how mobile CA (here used to model elementary combat ) can be used to explore the relationship between primitive rules governing behavior on the micro-scale and emergent behavior on the macro-scale see text.

The following chapter deals with the three acquisition challenges in DoD-FDA relations licensing, the use of INDs in combat, and manufacturing. Chapter Three examines the industrial model of drug... 

The history of combating the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can be viewed as a model of today s development of pharmaceuticals (Stone, 1995). Since the middle of the 1980s a total of 20 anti-AIDS pharmaceuticals based on 16 distinct chemical entities have been introduced into the market the first was AZT by Glaxo in 1987. A causal therapy, however, has not been developed yet. Most advantageous effects of today s actives are temporary because HIV is characterized by an extreme mutability and can cause resistance phenomena through rapid mutation within months or sometimes weeks against most approved preparations or those in clinical phases. The criterion for efficacy is the reduction of the number, or even total elimination, of viruses in the blood combined with an enhanced count of C D4-T-lymphocytes. 

Finally, one intriguing application of these plants is that of combating hypoglycemia. The freeze-dried juice of Cucurbita ficifolia fruits, for example, has been successfully used in the treatment of diabetes type 2 in Mexico. The hypoglycemic effect was demonstrated by estimating blood glucose levels in different experimental models on healthy mice, alloxan-diabetic mice, and alloxan-diabetic rats [30]. 

One way to combat this erosion of safety is to provide ways to maintain accurate risk assessments in the process models of the system controllers. The more and better information controllers have, the more accurate will be their prcx ess models and therefore their decisions. 

---