Abstract
In his classic book Aircraft in Warfare, F. W. Lanchester discussed different types of warfare and presented equations, called the Lanchester equations, that can be used to model the results of battles between two forces of different sizes or capabilities. This paper introduces the Lanchester equations and provides a theoretical discussion leading to an analysis of the relative value of increasing the effectiveness of military assets vs. increasing the quantity of those assets. In particular, we show that increasing the effectiveness contributes only linearly to the power of a combatant, but increasing the quantity contributes quadratically. This paper also presents a Python script that models the Lanchester equations, together with a visualization demonstrating the effect of force concentration. The paper concludes with a discussion of the equations' relevance to cyberwarfare, specifically to drone warfare and DDoS attacks.
Recommended Citation
G. Markowsky and L. Markowsky, "Lanchester's Equations and Cyberwarfare," Proceedings of the 11th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems: Technology and Applications, IDAACS 2021, vol. 2, pp. 956 - 963, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Jan 2021.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1109/IDAACS53288.2021.9661048
Department(s)
Computer Science
Keywords and Phrases
Cyberwar; DDoS attack; Drones; Lanchester's equations; Lanchester's n-square law; Osipov's analysis
International Standard Book Number (ISBN)
978-166542605-3
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2024 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Jan 2021
