Braden T. Lusk, Joshua M. Hoffman, and Kyle A. Perry
A design tool was developed which characterizes the pressure and impulse reduction abilities of an Explosafe Aluminium Mesh over a specific range of scaled distances. This tool was developed by evaluating blast mitigation properties of the mesh through the use of a shock tube. The aluminium mesh reduced pressure and impulse to a greater degree as layers of mesh were increased. Additionally, pressure reduction and impulse reduction come at a design trade-off to one another. As scaled distance increases, impulse reduction increases while pressure reduction decreases. Overall impressive reductions were achieved by such a lightweight and easy-to-handle material, however, these tests began to investigate a lightweight blast mitigation option for the field. A design tool was created utilizing the data from previous arena tests and the shock tube tests discussed in this paper.
Pietro D’Amico, Mark Richardson, James Jackman, Brian Butters, and Nic Millwood
In order to improve aircraft self protection against second-generation Infrared (IR) Man-Portable Air-Defence Systems (MANPADS), which could be widely proliferated in modern theatres of operation, a decoy dispenser pod may be fitted. This pod could have the capability of firing IR decoy Countermeasure (CM) flares in a forwards direction in an attempt to overcome the “track angle bias” counter-countermeasure (CCM) technique which may be used on missiles of this types. In this paper, two different CM flares have been considered, namely the standard flare and the propelled flare. Consideration has also been given to multiple flare firings with investigation into the timing interval required between firings. The results show a general ineffectiveness of the standard flares because of the high separation rate of this type of flare from the aircraft. It is also shown that complete platform self protection can be achieved with the propelled flare during crossing engagements due to the aerodynamic design and the thrust profile of the flare. A further investigation has demonstrated the best evasive manoeuvres that can be conducted by the aircraft after having released the countermeasures.
Sushil Kumar, Satya Prakash, Anil K. Maini, V.B. Patil, and R.B. Sharma
Present-day warfare includes extensive use of laser-based devices and laser-guided weapons. This large-scale use of laser-based systems has made all platforms more vulnerable to precision attack by laser-guided munitions (LGM). Such a situation emphasises the importance of timely detection and recognition of laser threats. This necessitates that friendly platforms are equipped with a suitable laser-warning sensor that would provide timely information about the incoming laser threat with a high level of angle-of-arrival accuracy so that suitable countermeasure action can be initiated against it. This paper (part I of II) discusses the design aspect of the opto-electronic front end of a laser-warning system (LWS). It highlights the technological challenges in the design of the opto-electronic front end of the LWS and gives a brief description of a unique design using an array of discrete photodiodes. The results are analysed to assess its suitability for a laser-warning system having angular accuracy of ±3º and field of view from –45º to +45° in azimuth and –10° to +25° in elevation.
Kevin Sprague, Peter Dobias, and Robert Bryce
This paper examines temporal and spatial patterns of violence from a critical systems perspective using data on levels of violent activity in Afghanistan collected daily from 2006 to 2009. Scaling, persistence and intermittency parameters are quantified in the temporal domain. In the spatial domain, the use of a spatial pattern measure ‘symmetropy’ is explored. This study builds upon previous studies suggesting that 1) the conflict exhibits properties of a near critical system when violent incidents are viewed as a point process, and 2) a link exists between spatial structure formation as captured by symmetropy and critical behaviour.
Sumanta K. Das and Sumant Mukherjee
This paper presents algorithms for decision-making agents for an integrated air defence (IAD) system. The advantage of using an agent-based system over a conventional decision-making system is its ability to detect and track targets automatically and, if required, allocate weapons to neutralize threats in an integrated manner. Such an approach is particularly useful for future network centric warfare applications. Two agents are presented here that perform the basic decision-making tasks of command and control (C2), such as detection and action against jamming, threat assessment, and weapons allocation. The belief-desire-intention (BDI) architectures provide the building blocks of these agents. These agents decide their actions by meta-level plan reasoning processes. The proposed agent-based IAD system runs without any manual inputs, and represents a state-of-art model for C2 autonomy.
Jason S. Sherwin and Dimitri N. Mavris
This paper discusses a detailed method for accomplishing situational awareness (SA) on a computer. Following an earlier paper on the topic, the specific case of the Iraq conflict from 2003–2008 is used as an example context. To validate this computational SA, a rudimentary system dynamics model is used to generate fictitious extreme-case data that bounds the actual data. For reasons to be explained in this paper, the computational SA is then built from the extreme-case data and then tested on the actual data. From this approach, it is shown that the implementation of the computing algorithms used here delivered results consistent with observed behaviour in the theatre. Consequently, this study contributes an alternative way in which computer-based calculation can aid large organizations in making decisions on complex matters of international policy.
