Research On Equipment Contribution Of Weapon System-of-systems Based On Combat Network Model

The development of military equipment systems is the crucial base for the building of a strong national defense and powerful armed forces,is a strategic task of China's modernization drive and a strong guarantee for national security and great rejuvenation.Addressing a two-day conference of the People's Liberation Army(PLA)on equipment,held in December 2014,President Xi Jinping stressed that “all the building of equipment systems should be aimed at a system-of-systems level and evaluated against their respective contributions to the advancement of whole weapon system-of-systems(WSoS)”.Therfore,the appropriate evaluation of equipment contrbitubion plays an important role for optimizing the architecture and improving the efficiency of the WSoS development,and building an information-led WSoS that meets the demands of actual combat.With the advent of the era of big data,complex network theory has received significant attentions with the applications in the WSoS,and thus can provide a scientific and effective means to research on equipment contribution.Regarding the difficulties and challenges in analyzing the equipment contribution to WSoS,this dissertation puts forward a method of equipment contribution to WSoS based on the combat network model.The main contents and contributions of this dissertation are listed as follows.(1)The framwork for studying the equipment contribution is proposed based on combat network model.First,the concept of weapon system-of-systems combat network(WSoSCN)is defined and its characteristics are analysed.Then this dissertation presents a five-dimension hierarchical model to describe the structure of WSoSCN.The concept and connotation of equipment contribution are discussed.On this base,evaluation steps of equipment contribution are introduced.(2)The “Function & Operation” combat network models are proposed to describe the WSoSCN.Related concepts and modeling procedure is introduced first.In order to better model the equipment,three kinds of meta-functional nodes are presented: sensor,decider and influencer,which constitute the equipment.Different kinds of meta-functional nodes are portrayed by capability indexes related to its specific function.Complicated relationships between meta-functional nodes are classified and discussed.However,the established “Function” combat network model can only depict the static aspects of WSoSCN.In this regard,an “Operation” combat network model considering the time factor is presented on the base of “Function” combat network.(3)Based on the “Function & Operation” combat network models,equipment contribution is studied from three perpectives: operational capability,structure robustness,and mission supporting.Evaluation procedures and measures of equipment contribution are studied from the three foregoing pespectives respectively.Finally,an illustrative example of digital armoured equipment WSoS is used to evaluate the contribution of battle tank,validating the feasibility of the proposed methods.The results are discussed and some meaningful conclusions are drawn,and in turn suggestions are given to the construction and development of WSoS.