Critique of Current Methods

Abstract

The importance of using analytics as a source of strategic advantage has not entirely escaped the defense industry, but their use has been inconsistent, often being dismissed in favor of reliance on personal experiences (also known as guessing). Modern research in analytics is not frequently performed directly by the defense industry at all, and such organizations as the Chief of Staff of the Army’s Strategic Studies Group openly acknowledge their rejection of modern methods that are already successfully used in other industries due to past implementation failures. Rather, there are very tiny units in the navy and air force dedicated to this matter, while the bulk they sit idly and unaware, waiting while mathematicians, statisticians, computer programmers, and others who work on these problems as a labor of love try to generate solutions for improved methods in defense operations. Developments in defense analytics most commonly come from private companies attempting to sell products, recommendations made by think tanks trying to get research grants, or from university professors who intend to publish the results. Most of these analytics never find their way into defense operations at all and, of those that are adopted by the defense industry, it is difficult to say the exact extent to which they are utilized because once they reach that point, their use becomes a matter of top secret national security.