Operations Research For Military Organizations

The study of operations research arose during World War II to enhance the effectiveness of weapons and equipment used on the battlefield. Since then, operations research techniques have also been used to solve several sophisticated and complex defense-related problems. Operations Research for Military Organizations is a critical scholarly resource that examines the issues that have an impact on aspects of contemporary quantitative applications of operations research methods in the military. It also addresses innovative applications, techniques, and methodologies to assist in solving defense and military-related problems. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as combat planning, tactical decision aids, and weapon system simulations, this book is geared towards defense contractors, military consultants, military personnel, policy makers, and government departments seeking current research on defense methodologies.

Operations research (OR) emerged during World War II as an important means of assisting civilian and military leaders in making scienti?cally sound improvements in the design and performance of weapons and equipment. OR techniques were soon extended to address questions of tactics and strategy during the war and, after the war, to matters of high-level political and economic policy. Until now, the story of why and how the U.S. Army used OR has remained relatively obscure, surviving only in a few scattered o?cial documents, in the memories of those who participated, and in a number of notes and articles that have been published about selected topics on military operations research. However, none of those materials amounts to a comprehensive, coherent history. In this, the ? rst of three planned volumes, Dr. Charles R. Shrader has for the ?rst time drawn together the scattered threads and woven them into a well-focused historical narrative that describes the evolution of OR in the U.S. Army, from its origins in World War II to the early 1960s. He has done an admirable job of ferreting out the surviving evidence, shaping it into an understandable narrative, and placing it within the context of the overall development of American military institutions. Often working with only sparse and incomplete materials, he has managed to provide a comprehensive history of OR in the U.S. Army that o?ers important insights into the natural tension between military leaders and civilian scientists, the establishment and growth of Army OR organizations, the use (and abuse) of OR techniques, and, of course, the many important contributions that OR managers and analysts have made to the growth and improvement of the Army since 1942. In this volume, Dr. Shrader carries the story up to 1962, the beginning of the McNamara era and of America’s long involvement in Vietnam. The subsequent volumes will cover Army OR during the McNamara era; its application in support of military operations in Vietnam; and its significant contributions to the Army’s post–Vietnam recovery and reorganization, ultimately leading to a victory (after only 100 hours of combat) in the first Gulf War in 1991 and the emergence of the U.S. Army as second to none in modern weaponry, tactical prowess, and strategic vision.

The growth of operations research during the past several years has been phenomenal. Throughout its evolution, military problems have continually nourished the subject matter and provided interesting sources of research for its further development. As a consequence, military research organizations such as the Office of Naval Research have historically furnished the major support for work on the basic foundations of mathematics and management science necessary to the continued growth of operations research. Beginning with one or two basic textbooks in the early 1950's, most of the tools and techniques of this field have been found in specialized textbooks and the open literature. Recently several new and comprehensive textbooks became available for the classroom training of operations researchers at all levels. This is not surprising, since separate departments of operations research have been formed at various colleges and universities and now provide an opportunity for major study in this field at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. By and large the textbooks now available are not particularly oriented toward military applications, and a need for such a book appears to exist. This book has been written with a view toward filling that need. Its main purpose is to provide orientation for the practitioner who is interested in problem areas that have direct bearing on military applications. It is not a basic textbook designed to train an operations researcher in a comprehensive fashion, although certainly some of the material is amenable to classroom use. On the other hand, it is not a collection of isolated research papers. Rather, as the title indicates, it is an illustration ofthe basic tools and techniques used in solving certain problems of a military nature and application. Several areas have been explored in some detail, although certainly not every conceivable application or area is covered. Also, some applications are presented in terms that are broader than a specific military use. The coordinating theme of the book is the exploitation of mathematical models in the investigation of problems. For this reason the book begins with an extensive discussion of the various aspects of a mathematical model and its role in operations research. A case is made for the place of abstraction in the study of models and is illustrated with the simpler aspects of a Boolean algebra. Following this a rather comprehensive survey of probability and statistics is provided, emphasizing those points that are particularly significant for studying models. The book then proceeds through a variety of models from very specialized problems through search theory, simulation, and finally, inventory and reliability models. It then closes with a broad discussion of systems analysis.

Operations research (OR) is a core discipline in military and defense management. Coming to the forefront initially during World War II, OR provided critical contributions to logistics, supply chains, and strategic simulation, while enabling superior decision-making for Allied forces. OR has grown to include analytics and many applications, including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and big data, and is the cornerstone of management science in manufacturing, marketing, telecommunications, and many other fields. The Handbook of Military and Defense Operations Research presents the voices leading OR and analytics to new heights in security through research, practical applications, case studies, and lessons learned in the field. Features Applies the experiences of educators and practitioners working in the field Employs the latest technology developments in case studies and applications Identifies best practices unique to the military, security, and national defense problem space Highlights similarities and dichotomies between analyses and trends that are unique to military, security, and defense problems

This volume explores the interpersonal, organizational, and technological enablers and barriers to information and intelligence sharing in multinational and multiagency military, humanitarian, and counterterrorism operations. To this end the contributions present case studies and other empirical research. UN and special operations headquarters are studied, along with multinational operations in Mali, Iraq, and Afghanistan by the UN and by U.S. Central Command. Perennial themes are the need for a holistic approach to information sharing—one that incorporates all the above enablers—and the importance of learning from experience, which should be the basis for operational planning. There is still considerable ground to be gained in enhancing the efficacy of information sharing in the context of defense and security, and the present book contributes to this goal.

The Handbook of Military and Defense Operations Research presents the voices leading OR and analytics to new heights in security through research, practical applications, case studies, and lessons learned in the field.