Cameroon violence will increase in coming weeks

Significance This marks the most recent incident in mounting conflict this year between security forces and separatist forces, as well as broader violence against civilians. The conflict has, since its outbreak in 2017, killed at least 4,000 people and displaced some 700,000, with another 700,000 children shut out of school in 2021. Impacts The consolidation of separatist groups may intensify in the coming year, improving their overall coordination and combat effectiveness. Rising casualties and poor living conditions may lead to increased security force abuses. Cooperation between Cameroonian and Nigerian separatists may engender improved cooperation between the two governments to counter them.

MODEL OF OPERATION OF COMBAT AIRCRAFT GROUND TRANSPORTATION SERVICE SYSTEMS

The article analyzes the current state and prospects of development of systems of ground transport maintenance of aircraft, which allowed to form the purpose of the study in this development. The chosen topic is quite relevant, because effective organization of combat aircraft maintenance allows raising combat effectiveness of Ukrainian air forces. One of the directions of maintenance cost reduction is effective use of resources. The study establishes that in order to improve the quality of transport maintenance and increase the combat effectiveness of the Armed Forces and National Guard of Ukraine, it is necessary to pay attention to the use of new transport vehicles, especially modular designs and development of technology to determine the optimal distribution of transport resources for aircraft maintenance, for different conditions of the transport complex and different types of aircraft maintenance. The authors propose to consider two aircraft maintenance schemes – existing using existing technology and proposed using a modular design. In a modular design, a wheeled tractor acts as a tug, which drives mobile modules, which are special means for servicing aircraft. Such an energy-efficient vehicle may consist of 4 modules at a time. The process of delivering the cargo required for servicing the aircraft at the airport is estimated at costs, which form a set of cost values for each technological process of servicing the aircraft. The set criterion is influenced by the parameters: the cost of performing a unit of the corresponding operation, the cost of one hour of work of one worker, the time of performing the corresponding operation, the number of modules involved to perform the corresponding service, the number of aircraft. The developed models of functioning of combat aircraft maintenance systems for maintenance will allow to take into account the influence of random factors, to assess the possibility of using modular designs, as well as to determine the efficiency of existing resources on airfields in Ukraine.

The Ethnic Stacking in Africa Dataset: When leaders use ascriptive identity to build military loyalty

Ethnicity has played a core role in the construction of African security institutions, with leaders often relying on coethnics to secure military loyalty. Such practices, termed ethnic stacking, likely have profound consequences for a range of important outcomes, from combat effectiveness to coup propensity to democratization. The Ethnic Stacking in Africa Dataset provides the first comprehensive data on the ethnic stacking practices of all African countries, from independence to 2018 (with 95.7% of leaders and 98.3% of country years recovered). This new data will allow scholars to better understand African militaries and their behavior and capabilities.

MILITARY INTERVENTION OF THE USA AND SOUTH VIETNAM IN LAOS IN JANUARY-APRIL 1971 ACCORDING TO THE MEMOIRS OF THE VIETNAM AND AMERICAN PARTICIPANTS OF THE WAR

The article is devoted to the history of the planning and making of intervention of USA and South Vietnam into Laos in February-April 1971. The operation was named «Lam Son 719». The invasion group was to destroy the infrastructure of material support of People‟s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) – «Ho Chi Minh Trail». The work is built with the assistance of a memoir – translations memories combatants in Laos, soldiers and commanders of Army of United States America, South Vietnam and Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The materials housed in the monographs of American and Vietnam researchers of the Indochina conflict, 1960–1970-s.In 1971 amid the withdrawal of US troops from Indochina, American administration made a decision to invade Laos. The main target of the intervention was destroying the objects of «Ho Chi Minh Trail» in the southeastern regions of the kingdom. With a success of ARVN in Laos, the PAVNs combat effectiveness is seriously reduced. This operation was critical test of Vietnamization. «Lam Son 719» had to demonstrate high combat capability of ARVN. The victory was supposed to strengthen international credibility of USA. In 8 February 1971, Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) invaded into kingdom. The command of PAVN, having guessed the enemy's plan, pulled together large forces in Lower Laos. Supported by U.S. artillery, helicopters, fightersbombers and B-52s, South Vietnamese troops advanced fought heavy battles with the enemy. The author paid attention to some military and political aspects of intervention into Laos. The article deals with the problems of South Vietnamese troops. Special attention is paid by the author to the analysis of the morale and combat effectiveness units of ARVN during invasion into Laos. The author concluded, that the intervention of ARVN and U.S. Army ended in complete failure. The main objectives of the invasion were not achieved.

Condition Monitoring of Tank Bore Surface Characteristics by an Integrated Measurement Technique

Accuracy and safety of tank guns are dependent a great degree on the condition of its gun bore. Many parameters affect accuracy and safety and have strong and complex interdependencies. While it is extremely difficult to monitor all these parameters during battle conditions, it is also essential to enhance the accuracy of the gun by measuring and compensating these parameters. Among all, bore wear and bore centreline are predominant factors. The surface characteristics of the bore also are indicative of potential accidents/deterioration, which should be monitored continuously. Hence, condition monitoring of tank gun bore characteristics in near real-time is an impending need with huge potential for enhancing the combat effectiveness of tank formations. This paper analyses various bore parameters affecting accuracy and safety and proposes a comprehensive condition monitoring method that uses vision camera, thermal camera and mechanical profiler. This integrated approach provides enhanced accuracy in measuring surface characteristics of tank bore that has been partially validated.

A Core Difference! The Varying Hoplite Shield Designs and their Effects on Economic Value, Performance and Combat Effectiveness

Despite the vast research undertaken on hoplite warfare, surprisingly little is known about how hoplite shields were made, the very technology underpinning the transformative military reforms of hoplite warfare. The few forays that have explored the manufacturing process have been isolated and unintegrated studies leading to an often simplistic and superficial uniformity of production model which does not reflect the evidence. This article analyses the physical remains of extant hoplite shields and finds a plurality of different designs in concurrent use with core compositional differences that likely impacted combat performance and economic value with some designs performing better than others. Moreover, the use and availability of different shield designs of variable quality and economic value suggests a wider range of socioeconomic diversity in hoplite armies and among hoplites than is generally assumed.

METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO ASSESSMENT OF COMBAT DAMAGE ELIMINATION EFFECTIVENESS AND RECOVERY OF OPERATIOANAL CAPABILITIES OF AIR DEFENSE SYSTEMS MEANS OF COMBAT IN COUNTEROFFENSIVE OPERATION

The operational use of armament and military equipment (AME) and the resulting operational failures and combat damage lead to a decrease or loss of combat capability of groupings of troops. That is why the timely and high– quality implementation of a set of measures to keep the AME in operational conditions is connected with the need of solving the problem of logistical support for the timely elimination of failures and combat damage. At the same time, the effectiveness of the air defense systems recovery, taking into account the type of operation being conducted and the existing resource constraints requires a more detailed study. The aim of the article is to form a methodical approach to evaluate the effectiveness of repairing combat damage and restoring the combat effectiveness of air defense systems in a counteroffensive operation in modern conditions. Means of destruction that can be employed to inflict air defense systems in counteroffensive operation are considered. Modeling of the enemy’s use of different types of means of destruction was carried out, the obtained results substantiated the damage to the air defense systems’ means of combat, which can be sustained in a counteroffensive operation. In addition, the labor costs for recovery were calculated. Using the method of assessing the possibilities of combat damage eliminating and restoring the effectiveness of AME specimen, calculations of the recovery effectiveness of air defense system’s means of combat were performed. As indicators that characterize the capabilities of repair and restoration units to eliminate combat damage and restore the operational performance of AME, the average duration of AME specimen restoration and the probability of timely repairs, taking into account resource constraints are used. An analysis of the calculations results of the probability of timely recovery of air defense system was performed. The maximum values of labor costs for restoration and characteristics of repair and restoration units are given. The method of calculating the effectiveness of combat damage eliminating and restoring the combat effectiveness of air defense system in a counteroffensive operation under resource constraints was further developed.

Value and Methods of Measuring Combat Effectiveness: A New Approach

The lack of effective methods to measure the combat effectiveness of an army deters military mathematical models and military simulation software from realizing their full potential. In this paper, we use Galilean idealization and domain theory to suggest solutions and propose an appropriate mathematical method to reach universally applicable results. We introduce the International System of Units (SI) to measure combat effectiveness without relying on subjective assumptions regarding parameters. Our method requires only spatial and temporal data to calculate combat effectiveness by evaluating the extent of territorial changes (outcome) within a given time period (time). Moreover, we measure influencing factors of combat effectiveness, based on the ratio of combat effectiveness. We discuss the practical value and applicability of this method in the development of the analysis-simulation software of combat effectiveness.