Modeling and Simulation to Identify Offensive Denial Mining Key Performance Drivers and Behavioral Responses

Abstract

The United States Navy has kept only a few varieties of maritime mines in its inventory for the last several decades and has let its mining tactical doctrine stagnate in order to prioritize its mine countermeasure capabilities. This thesis looks at mine warfare (MIW) through a modern lens using modeling and simulation (M and S) to capture a broader set of factors around the mining operational environment beyond mine performance characteristics and employment parameters to also include probabilistic enemy responses measured against updated mission success criteria. This thesis explores three generic and unclassified experiment scenarios to draw broad conclusions about the factors that most affect mining success and lays the groundwork for future exercises to explore specific mining use cases to inform the next generation of mines and their employment. Analysis indicates that air delivery strategies generally outperform surface, submarine, or UUV delivery with regard to affecting enemy behavioral outcomes. Note that the UUV delivery is associated with a lower overall quantity of mines, the impact of which can be mitigated through UUV movement speed and individual mine probability of detection and engagement.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2021
Accession Number
AD1150915

Entities

People

  • Anthony M. Deken
  • Bradley Leusner
  • Justin Lewis
  • Kaylee M. Wichert

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Basic Programming Language
  • Detection
  • Employment
  • Experimental Design
  • Graphical User Interface
  • Minefields
  • Munitions
  • Naval Operations
  • Navy
  • Operations Research
  • Satellite Guided Weapons
  • Simulations
  • Submarine Warfare
  • Submarines
  • Systems Engineering
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Underwater Vehicles
  • United States
  • Unmanned Underwater Vehicles
  • Uss Virginia
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Distributed Systems and Data Platform Development
  • Maritime and Naval Warfare Studies
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies