Structural Measurement of Military Organization Capability

Abstract

This research presents a structural model of the effect of the organization of military units upon their capability. This research is oriented towards a more complete understanding of military capability and policy decisions about the structure and development of military forces. We identify the types of national and military policy decisions that claims of military capability inform, and find that there are five distinct types of capability claims relevant to military policy. We show how these types of capability claims are logically related to each other, but have different premises, predicates, and standards of proof. We find that one of these types of claims, General Organization Capability Claims, ties together the various military policy decisions. The remainder of this research shows how these capability claims can be formally structured based on military doctrine and structurally evaluated using a network-science based model. The interaction between the structural elements of a military organization (personnel, materiel, and information) and the things it is supposed to do (military tasks) can be represented and analyzed with network science methods, and represents a type of general organization capability claim. We present a method for representing policy decisions about unit structure and tactical doctrine. We then develop two versions of a structural model of capability one that links the individual elements of an organization to the tasks it performs; another that considers the capacity of a set of organizations to meet a set of requirements. We show that network statistics of organizations represented off of authoritative, rather than observational, data are still consistent with network science findings but require interpretation. We also show how alternate methods of aggregating organizations can expand the utility of the capability measurement.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 2014
Accession Number
AD1146946

Entities

People

  • Robert A. Behrman

Organizations

  • Carnegie Mellon University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Anti-Tank Missiles
  • Artillery
  • Asymmetric Warfare
  • Combat Areas
  • Command And Control
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Employment
  • Information Systems
  • Military Acquisition
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Research
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Network Science
  • Organizational Structure
  • Public Policy
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Criminal Law
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Theoretical Analysis.