Leontief Metamodeling for Military Strategic Effects

In this research, we propose and demonstrate an approach to incorporate currently un-modeled interactions into an existing or a new combat model or simulation. We apply the Leontief Input-Output model, which is a macro- economic model that measures the interactions between major industrial sectors of an economy, as a metamodel that periodically assesses the status of various combat units and support functions. If needed resources are insufficient, appropriate degrades are input into the combat model. As a result, dependencies that are not in the combat model are incorporated. Hence, we can assess the strategic or cascading effects of destroying a set of targets. We demonstrate our approach with THUNDER, the Air Force's campaign model. We estimated the Leontief model parameters with preliminary THUNDER runs. Some of the strategic targets-which formerly had no impact on the scenario-were connected in the Leontief metamodel. We ran the scenario again with degrades from the Leontief model being passed to THUNDER at regular intervals. This work provides a deeper understanding of the military structure as a system. Using the Leontief model as a metamodel is a promising approach for measuring the cascading impact of strategic targets on the entire military system.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB Oh School of Engineering is the author of 'Leontief Metamodeling for Military Strategic Effects', published 2000 under ISBN 9781423538172 and ISBN 142353817X.