Swedish National Defence College

About: Swedish National Defence College is a education organization based out in Stockholm, Sweden. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Crisis management & European union. The organization has 218 authors who have published 569 publications receiving 8074 citations.

Piracy off West Africa from 2010 to 2014: an analysis

Abstract: Piracy is one of the most frequent maritime threats. However, despite the importance of how maritime piracy is to be reduced, it is substantially less investigated than maritime safety. Piracy off Somalia is the most investigated case of piracy, but those results are not necessarily generalizable. Piracy off West Africa has been shown to be more diverse, successful and dangerous. This study investigates and analyses piracy off West Africa with the aim to understand how different operations and security measures affect the consequences of piracy. This study has identified several different intents and shows that most attacks are relatively close to shore and correspond to areas of high ship density. Attacks with the intent of theft at night-time are generally performed close to shore, and more complicated attacks against ships under way are more common during daytime and farther from shore. Five types of measures are found to have high effectiveness if the attack is detected during approach; after boarding, only two measures have high effectiveness. Of the effective measures, it can be concluded that all but one are dependent on detecting the attack. Therefore, detecting the pirates is key but must be accompanied by a set of measures because no measure alone can protect a ship given the operational conditions off West Africa. The risks associated with piracy off West Africa are estimated to be of the same magnitude as the risks posed by Somali piracy at its peak.

Case-Studies of Decision Support Models for Collaboration in Tactical Mobile Environments

Abstract: : The paper addresses experimental studies of decision support models for collaboration in tactical network-centric operations. This project, supported by partners from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory "LLNL", US Special Operations Command "SOCOM", Swedish Armed Forces, Austria, and Singapore. Naval Postgraduate Schools "NPS" Tactical Network Topology "TNT" is the base for the testbed, comprised of long-haul OFDM networks combined with self-forming wireless mesh links to unmanned aerial vehicles "UAVs", radiation detection sensors, and geographically distributed experts. The case-study conducted by the NPS student team during the Summer of 2006 included Maritime Interdiction Operation "MIO", High-Value Target "HVT" tracking, and Emergency Response coordination scenarios, in which geographically distributed command centers and subject matter experts collaborate to facilitate situational understanding and course of action selection. During the study NPS students observed communication processes of geographically distributed teams and were able to position collaborative process in the decision making space of Simon's problem solving model, Boyd's OODA Loop, and Alberts and Hayes' Collaboration Significant Influences model. The results show high fidelity of Alberts and Hayes' Collaboration Significant Influences model and reveal the requirements to collaborative network topology as well as multi participant team structures.

The naval theaters in Soviet grand strategy during the interwar period

Abstract: This article examines the role of naval theaters in Soviet grand strategy during the interwar period, as described in various strategic assessments from that period. In contrast to the situation during the Cold War, Soviet naval efforts were then mainly concentrated on the Baltic, where the protection of Leningrad and the Red Army's need for support seemed to require a comparatively strong fleet. The Northern Theater, although important, was too remote to become a decisive area of operations. In the Black Sea and Caspian Theaters, the position of the likely enemies was deemed insecure, therefore the Soviets could easily gain local supremacy and then stay on the defensive. In the Pacific, the threat from Japanese aggression was grave, but Anglo‐American influence for a long time appeared to be a balancing factor. There was a certain conjecture between the views expressed in strategic assessments during the period and the shifts between various schools in Soviet naval thinking: the ‘Old School’ of the 1920s...

Empirical Study of Flight-Dynamic Influences on Radar Cross-Section Models

Abstract: In this work, measurements and a method for analyzing flight-dynamic effects on radar cross-section models for aircraft are presented. Flight-dynamic effects need to be considered when designing co ...

Thermomechanical stability and integrability of an embedded ceramic antenna with an integrated sensor element for wireless reading in harsh environments

Abstract: This paper reports on the design, manufacturing and evaluation of a small, wirelessly powered and read resonating antenna circuit with an integrated pressure sensor. The work aims at developing miniature devices suitable for harsh environments, where high temperature prevents the use of conventional, silicon-based microdevices. Here, the device is made of alumina with platinum as conducting material. Ceramic green tapes were structured using high-precision milling, metallized using screen printing, and subsequently laminated to form stacks before they were sintered. The device's frequency shift as a function of temperature was studied up to 900°C. The contributions to the shift both from the thermomechanical deformation of the device at large, and from the integrated and, so far, self-pressurized sensor were sorted out. A total frequency shift of 3200 ppm was observed for the pressure sensor for heating over the whole range. Negligible levels of thermally induced radius of curvature were observed. With three-point bending, a frequency shift of 180 ppm was possible to induce with a curvature of radius of 220 m at a 10 N load. The results indicate that a robust pressure sensor node, which can register pressure changes of a few bars at 900°C and wirelessly transmit the signal, is viable.