Weaponeering for the Warfighter

Driels, Morris R.

ISBN 10: 1624106196 / ISBN 13: 9781624106194

Published by American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics, 2021

Seller Inventory # BSM.19T8U

Synopsis:

This new book targets a second audience of “warfighters.” They are usually military personnel who are involved with the execution of military operations, including the planning of offensive strikes against enemy forces. Although tools such as the Joint Weaponeering System (JWS) are available to plan such attacks, and training is provided for using the tools correctly, there is little explanation giving the warfighter an understanding of what lies behind programs such as JWS. Experience has shown warfighters desire to understand more than just the “buttonology” of using weaponeering tools since this does not provide background information on the assumptions, limitations, and reliability of the results they produce. There are many examples of trying to improve the probability of damage to the second decimal place when, if the assumptions behind the result were understood, the futility of doing this would become obvious. This book therefore uses much of the knowledge and material utilized in the author’s previous texts, but with an emphasis on breadth rather than depth. In addition, the mathematical validation of many of the methods is deemphasized and replaced with more real-world topics and examples to put the underlying methods in the context of how they are applied, rather than how they are developed. The need remains to explain some concepts using an approach that still involves some mathematics, physics and statistics, however this has been simplified as much as possible to the extent it may be ignored by the casual reader, as long as they are willing to accept the results that are produced. After presenting chapters on those topics needed to estimate the damage to a target using conventional weapons, an unclassified computer program is described that implements most of the methods outlined in the book. This is supplemented by a database approved by the Joint Technical Coordinating Group for Munitions Effectiveness (JTCG/ME) for educational purposes so that several case studies of realistic attacks can be evaluated. Although weaponeers in the U.S. and selected coalition partners with the appropriate security clearances can obtain copies of the JWS program and therefore have access to the classified weapon and target vulnerability data, that option will not be available to others. To remedy this to the extent possible, examples are presented indicating how this data may be estimated using open-source material.

About the Author: Morris R. Driels has taught Mechanical Engineering at universities in the United Kingdom and the United States since 1972. Beginning around 1995 in support of the Joint Technical Coordinating Group for Munitions Effectiveness, his research has focused on various aspects of conventional weapon effects, commonly known as Weaponeering. Since 1989 he has been Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, California, and has taught a Weaponeering short course to military and civilian audiences in the United States and overseas. He retired from NPS at the end of 2017, but is still actively teaching his short courses.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Weaponeering for the Warfighter
Publisher: American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics
Publication Date: 2021
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: very_good