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Articles 871 - 900 of 1292

Full-Text Articles in Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering

Compare And Complexity - When Is Compare Not Enough?, Chris E. Greiman Mar 2002

Compare And Complexity - When Is Compare Not Enough?, Chris E. Greiman

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this case study research is to determine the utility of COMPARE, the DoD approved software for conducting A-76 competitions, in the more complex world of public-private competition. COMPARE serves as the baseline for establishing cost factors, while two Air Force Depots are used as a basis of comparison. Research questions answered are: 1. What are the baseline cost comparison factors established in COMPARE? 2. What are the common cost factors found in the Air Force Depot public-private competitions? 3. What are the similarities and differences between the cost factors established in COMPARE and those used in the …

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Quicklook Air Mobility Modeling, Mustafa K. Pektas Mar 2002

Quicklook Air Mobility Modeling, Mustafa K. Pektas

Theses and Dissertations

This research is a framework for understanding issues in modeling the military aspect of space, with particular regard to capturing its value. Space power is a difficult and far-reaching topic, with implications that go beyond the military aspects. The United States military increasingly relies on space-based systems and information for success in daily operations. Telecommunications, navigation and timing, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and weather prediction are instances of services that have become dependent on satellite systems. If this reliance on space is not fully understood, U.S. national security will be at risk as the result of space information degradation or denial. …

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An Evaluation Of Public And Private Sector Housing Alternatives For Military Families, Lawrence P. Kokocha Jr. Mar 2002

An Evaluation Of Public And Private Sector Housing Alternatives For Military Families, Lawrence P. Kokocha Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the three primary housing alternatives along with their associated benefits and costs for military members at Robins Air Force Base. Using a case study methodology, qualitative and quantitative data were collected from contract documents, cost records, statements and testimonies to Congress, literature, census data, and interviews with civil engineering, contracting, financial management and legal professionals. This data was analyzed to determine which housing alternative seems to provide the best benefits at the lowest costs for military members and the government. The results of the study indicated that private sector alternatives are less expensive than government provided housing. …

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Spectrum Management And The Global Positioning System: A Case Study In Interagency Coordination, John A. Enis Mar 2002

Spectrum Management And The Global Positioning System: A Case Study In Interagency Coordination, John A. Enis

Theses and Dissertations

At the 2000 World Radio Conference (WRC), a European initiative resulted in the approval of resolutions 605 and 606 (agenda item 1.15), which the United States opposed. These resolutions established provisional power flux density (PFD) limits on the L2 and L5 frequencies of the Global Positioning System. These limits will negatively affect the $1.2B GPS modernization. The United States will have to present its positions and rationale regarding the PFD limits to international meetings, including the 2003 World Radio Conference, to persuade the international community to adopt that U.S. view. Developing the U.S. view and conducting the supporting technical work …

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How Can The Air Force Maximize The Value Of Reverse Auctioning As A Pricing Technique?, Cynthia L. Marion-Mullins Mar 2002

How Can The Air Force Maximize The Value Of Reverse Auctioning As A Pricing Technique?, Cynthia L. Marion-Mullins

Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the pricing tool reverse auctioning. In a reverse auction buyers state the item they wish to buy and the sellers compete with each other for the sale, driving the price steadily down until no seller is willing to go any lower. Darleen A. Druyun, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition and Management, Washington, D.C., launched the Air Force acquisition reform "Lightning Bolts" initiatives. These initiatives jump-start acquisition reform to find processes leading towards a better, faster, and cheaper way of conducting business. A reverse auction is one of these processes. A review of …

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An Analysis Of The Knowledge And Skill Levels Required To Effectively Support Analytical Cost Decisions In Source Selections, Anthony L. Smith Mar 2002

An Analysis Of The Knowledge And Skill Levels Required To Effectively Support Analytical Cost Decisions In Source Selections, Anthony L. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

We analyze these three factors (education, experience, and training) in an effort to identify the knowledge and skills necessary for cost analysts to possess to be effective members of cost panel evaluation teams during source selections. This research effort assesses whether the cost panel members and senior Air Force acquisition military and civilian personnel associate the levels of education, experience, and training as being key factors in fulfilling cost analysts duties while supporting the selection of a source in the government procurement process. To accomplish this objective, a literature review, personal interviews, and questionnaires were utilized. Descriptive statistics and hypothesis …

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An Empirical Investigation Of Critical Factors Affecting The Ability Of Public Entities To Compete In Public Private Competitions, Timothy J. Gilbride Mar 2002

An Empirical Investigation Of Critical Factors Affecting The Ability Of Public Entities To Compete In Public Private Competitions, Timothy J. Gilbride

Theses and Dissertations

In 1996, the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard initiated the largest ever service acquisition program to re-capitalize Coast Guard assets. Called the Integrated Deepwater System or IDS, this acquisition effort seeks to renovate, modernize, and or replace the Coast Guard s entire portfolio of ships, aircraft, and support facilities. The IDS contractor will be responsible for designing and constructing the system, as well as, sharing responsibility for supporting and disposing of it. This poses a significant threat to the USCG Aircraft Repair and Supply Center (AR&SC), the Coast Guard s aircraft depot located in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The …

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Analysis Of Air Force Contingency Contracting Training Needs, Peter S. Lasch Mar 2002

Analysis Of Air Force Contingency Contracting Training Needs, Peter S. Lasch

Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the Air Force training needs of contingency contracting officers (CCOs). The study utilized the deductive approach to research. A survey instrument captured the data for the study. The survey captured input from CCOs with deployment experience and each of the Air Force components and MAJCOMs. Series 1 of the survey polls CCOs with deployment experience to determine the training CCOs require based on their personal experiences. Series 2 surveys the component and MAJCOM level supervisors to determine their perception of the training that should be required for CCOs. Comparing the two series will identify any differences in …

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A Collaborative Visualization Framework Using Jini™ Technology, Chad M. Harris Mar 2002

A Collaborative Visualization Framework Using Jini™ Technology, Chad M. Harris

Theses and Dissertations

It is difficult to achieve mutual understanding of complex information between individuals that are separated geographically. Two well-known techniques commonly used to deal with this difficultly are collaboration and information visualization. This thesis develops a generic flexible framework that supports both collaboration and information visualization. It introduces the Collaborative Visualization Environment (COVE) framework, which simplifies the development of real-time synchronous multi-user applications by decoupling the elements of collaboration from the application. This allows developers to focus on building applications and leave the difficulties of collaboration (i.e., concurrency controls, user awareness, session management, etc.) to the framework. The framework uses an …

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Beyond A-76: How To Achieve The Goals Without The Pain, Kurt A. Chelf Mar 2002

Beyond A-76: How To Achieve The Goals Without The Pain, Kurt A. Chelf

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Defense has determined that Outsourcing and Privatization is key to reducing operating costs and subsequently providing the fiscal dollars necessary to modernize the U.S. Armed Forces. In an effort to achieve this goal, the DoD has mandated that the Air Force study at least 5% of its manning positions for possible conversion to contract. This mandate effects over 200,000 positions throughout the department. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular, Number A-76, Performance Of Commercial Activities dictates the process used to study the appropriateness of these conversions. This thesis explores the usefulness and applicability of this process, …

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The Management Of Energy Savings Performance Contracts (Espcs), Ericka M. Dailey Mar 2002

The Management Of Energy Savings Performance Contracts (Espcs), Ericka M. Dailey

Theses and Dissertations

Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) originated to accomplish several objectives: (1) to meet energy efficiency goals mandated by executive orders and energy policies; (2) to improve federal government facilities using funds allocated for utility bills; and (3) to receive repayment of expenditures through energy savings reflected in reduced utility bills. In ESPC's, the contractor guarantees savings to the federal government agency. 10 CFR 436 limits the time necessary for payback. However, this regulation and others were written prior to the deregulation of utility companies. This theory is based on the underlying premise that the contractor payback is a direct result …

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Task Load And Automation Use In An Uncertain Environment, Mark A. Daly Mar 2002

Task Load And Automation Use In An Uncertain Environment, Mark A. Daly

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects that user task load level has on the relationship between an individual's trust in and subsequent use of a system's automation. Automation research has demonstrated a positive correlation between an individual's trust in and subsequent use of the automation. Military decision-makers trust and use information system automation to make many tactical judgments and decisions. In situations of information uncertainty (information warfare environments), decision-makers must remain aware of information reliability issues and temperate their use of system automation if necessary. An individual's task load may have an effect on his use …

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A System Dynamics Approach To Modeling Aircraft System Production Break Costs, John J. Dubelko Mar 2002

A System Dynamics Approach To Modeling Aircraft System Production Break Costs, John J. Dubelko

Theses and Dissertations

This research effort employs a System Dynamics methodology to model Air Force aircraft production break costs. The Air Force currently used the Anderlohr, Modified Anderlohr, and Retrograde methods for the estimation of aircraft production breaks. These methods offer little insight into the dynamic behavior of an aircraft production break. System Dynamics offers a unique way of capturing expert opinions in this area and dynamically presenting behaviors of an Air Force aircraft production line during a production break. Development of this model followed a four-step process of conceptualization, formulation, testing, and implementation. Five Air Force aircraft production break experts in were …

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Ontological Engineering And Mapping In Multiagent Systems Development, Jonathan M. Dileo Mar 2002

Ontological Engineering And Mapping In Multiagent Systems Development, Jonathan M. Dileo

Theses and Dissertations

Multiagent systems have received much attention in recent years due to their advantages in complex, distributed environments. Previous work at the Air Force Institute of Technology has developed a methodology for analyzing, designing, and developing multiagent systems, called Multiagent Systems Engineering (MaSE). MaSE currently does not address the information domain of the system, which is an integral part of designing proper system execution. This research extends the MaSE methodology to include the use of ontologies for information domain specification. The extensions allow the designer to specify information flow by using objects from the ontology as parameters in agent conversations. The …

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Empirical Analysis Of Various Multi-Dimensional Knapsack Heuristics, Yong Kun Cho Mar 2002

Empirical Analysis Of Various Multi-Dimensional Knapsack Heuristics, Yong Kun Cho

Theses and Dissertations

Since the multidimensional knapsack problems are NP-hard problems, the exact solutions of knapsack problems often need excessive computing time and storage space. Thus, heuristic approaches are more practical for multidimensional knapsack problems as problems get large. This thesis presents the results of an empirical study of the performance of heuristic solution procedures based on the coefficients correlation structures and constraint slackness settings. In this thesis, the three representative greedy heuristics, Toyoda, Senju and Toyoda, and Loulou and Michaelides’ methods, are studied. The purpose of this research is to explore which heuristic of the three representative greedy heuristics performs best under …

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Decision Analysis With Value Focused Thinking As A Methodology To Select Force Protection Initiatives For Evaluation, David M. Jurk Mar 2002

Decision Analysis With Value Focused Thinking As A Methodology To Select Force Protection Initiatives For Evaluation, David M. Jurk

Theses and Dissertations

Current emphasis on homeland security/defense is high. Decision makers responsible for enhancing the protection of both military and civilian personnel require additional insight when selecting ideas, concepts, or technologies to pursue with constrained resources. They are faced with multiple criteria and multiple objectives; yet they have no defensible, objective, and repeatable selection process to assist them in making their decisions. This thesis explores whether the value-focused thinking (VFT) process is appropriate for providing the necessary insight to those decision makers. To prove the VFT process is appropriate and viable; this thesis focuses on constructing a value model, scoring alternatives, and …

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Selecting Salient Features In High Feature To Exemplar Ratio Conditions, Ismail Aslan Mar 2002

Selecting Salient Features In High Feature To Exemplar Ratio Conditions, Ismail Aslan

Theses and Dissertations

A key tenet to the Air Force's vision of Global Vigilance, Reach, and Power is the ability to project power via the use of aerial refueling. Scheduling of limited tanker resources is a major concern for Air Mobility Command (AMC). Currently the Combined Mating and Ranging Planning System (CMARPS) is used to plan aerial refueling operations, however due to the complex nature of the program and the length of time needed to run a scenario, the need for a simple tool that runs in much shorter time is desired. Ant colony algorithms are recently developed heuristics for finding solutions to …

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Modeling The Pre-Positioning Of Air Force Precision Guided Munitions, Daniel P. Johnstone Mar 2002

Modeling The Pre-Positioning Of Air Force Precision Guided Munitions, Daniel P. Johnstone

Theses and Dissertations

There exist factors that play a major role in an enlisted Airman's decision to either stay on active duty in the Air Force or separate. The current force structure of the U.S. Air Force and increased loss of enlisted personnel is a major concern as we look at maintaining manpower to meet the needs of the Air Force. The Air Force is reacting to this low retention problem by increasing the bonuses for initial enlistments and reenlistments, home basing, increasing quality of life for Air Force personnel with enlisted dormitory plus-ups, and under AEF personnel have increased predictability of deployment. …

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Robust Sensitivity Analysis For Multi-Attribute Deterministic Hierarchical Value Models, Yucel R. Kahraman Mar 2002

Robust Sensitivity Analysis For Multi-Attribute Deterministic Hierarchical Value Models, Yucel R. Kahraman

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force's ability to deploy, employ, and sustain operations in forward locations is a key to mission success. An integral part of this strategy is equipment pre-positioning, to include: vehicles, aircraft support, consumable inventory, and munitions. This research focuses on defining and developing a model to aid decision makers with the afloat pre-positioning and deployment of munitions in an effort to ensure that the right weapons are available when, and where needed. This research places a particular focus on the strategic, global pre-positioning of the Afloat Pre-positioning Fleet (APF) in an effort to minimize the overall response time involved …

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Modeling And Analysis Of Multicommodity Network Flows Via Goal Programming, Matthew A. Scott Mar 2002

Modeling And Analysis Of Multicommodity Network Flows Via Goal Programming, Matthew A. Scott

Theses and Dissertations

In this research we focused on the mobility system modeled by the AMC mobility planner's calculator (AMPCALC). We developed AMPCALC as a user-friendly tool and allow the user to easily carry out strategic airlift, air refueling and aeromedical evacuation calculations that are covered in Air Force Pamphlet 10-1403. In this study, Excel software and its macro language, Visual Basic for Application, are our two main tools. In the methodology of the thesis we examined fundamental aspects of the mobility system in AMPCALC. We discussed formulation logic of the mobility cycle. We presented ramp use optimization and tanker optimization processes. We …

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An Integrated Architecture And Feature Selection Algorithm For Radial Basis Neural Networks, Timothy D. Flietstra Mar 2002

An Integrated Architecture And Feature Selection Algorithm For Radial Basis Neural Networks, Timothy D. Flietstra

Theses and Dissertations

There are two basic ways to control an Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) as it searches for targets: allow the UCAV to act autonomously or employ man-in-the-loop control. There are also two target sets of interest: fixed or mobile targets. This research focuses on UCAV-based targeting of mobile targets using man-in-the-loop control. In particular, the interest is in how levels of satellite signal latency or signal degradation affect the ability to accurately track, target, and attack mobile targets. This research establishes a weapon effectiveness model assessing targeting inaccuracies as a function of signal latency and/or signal degradation. The research involved …

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Identifying Enlisted Stay And Leave Population Characteristics With Discriminant Analysis, Zabrina Y. Hoggard Mar 2002

Identifying Enlisted Stay And Leave Population Characteristics With Discriminant Analysis, Zabrina Y. Hoggard

Theses and Dissertations

The research contribution of this thesis is the first known integrated architecture and feature selection algorithm for Radial Basis Neural Networks (RBNNs). The objective is to apply the network iteratively to determine the final architecture and feature set used to evaluate a problem. Additionally, this thesis compares three different classification techniques, Discriminant Analysis (DA), Feed-Forward Neural Networks (FFN) and RBNNs against several hard to solve problems. These problems were used to evaluate general classifier performance as well as the performance of the feature selection techniques. This thesis describes the classification techniques as well as the measures used to evaluate them. …

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Modeling And Analysis Of Social Networks, Robert S. Renfro Ii Dec 2001

Modeling And Analysis Of Social Networks, Robert S. Renfro Ii

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation develops new methods for the modeling and analysis of social networks. Social networks describe the complex relationships of individuals and groups in multiple overlapping contexts. Influence in a social network impacts behavior and decision making in every setting in which individuals participate. This study defines a methodology for modeling and analyzing this complex behavior using a Flow-Model representation. Multiple objectives in an influencing effort targeted at a social network are modeled using Goal Programming. Value Focused Thinking is applied to model influence and predict decisions based on the reaction of the psychological state of individuals to environmental stimuli. …

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Theater-Level Stochastic Air-To-Air Engagement Modeling Via Event Occurrence Networks Using Piecewise Polynomial Approximation, David R. Denhard Sep 2001

Theater-Level Stochastic Air-To-Air Engagement Modeling Via Event Occurrence Networks Using Piecewise Polynomial Approximation, David R. Denhard

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates a stochastic network formulation termed an event occurrence network (EON). EONs are graphical representations of the superposition of several terminating counting processes. An EON arc represents the occurrence of an event from a group of (sequential) events before the occurrence of events from other event groupings. Events between groups occur independently, but events within a group occur sequentially. A set of arcs leaving a node is a set of competing events, which are probabilistically resolved by order relations. An important EON metric is the probability of being at a particular node or set of nodes at time …

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A Decomposition Approach For The Multi-Modal, Resource-Constrained, Multi-Project Scheduling Problem With Generalized Precedence And Expediting Resources, Michael L. Fredley Sep 2001

A Decomposition Approach For The Multi-Modal, Resource-Constrained, Multi-Project Scheduling Problem With Generalized Precedence And Expediting Resources, Michael L. Fredley

Theses and Dissertations

The field of project scheduling has received a great deal of study for many years with a steady evolution of problem complexity and solution methodologies. As solution methodologies and technologies improve, increasingly complex, real-world problems are addressed, presenting researchers a continuing challenge to find ever more effective means for approaching project scheduling. This dissertation introduces a project scheduling problem which is applicable across a broad spectrum of real-world situations. The problem is based on the well-known Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem, extended to include multiple modes, generalized precedence, and expediting resources. The problem is further extended to include multiple projects which …

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A Force Structuring Model For A Moderately-Sized Nato Country, Hakan Bal Mar 2001

A Force Structuring Model For A Moderately-Sized Nato Country, Hakan Bal

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to develop a mathematical model which will aid the decision-makers of a moderately-sized NATO country to develop their future force structure composition. As the number of alternatives grows, and as the consequences become more important and more uncertain, the force structuring decision becomes increasingly difficult. The valuable lessons of past experience cannot be ignored. However, when one considers the high rotation rates of most countries' air forces, the rapid change in technology and the vast array of options available, even the most experienced leaders need some assistance. Hence, decision support tools are needed to …

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A Multi-Objective Decision Support Model For The Turkish Armed Forces Personnel Assignment System, Zubeyir Cimen Mar 2001

A Multi-Objective Decision Support Model For The Turkish Armed Forces Personnel Assignment System, Zubeyir Cimen

Theses and Dissertations

The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) assign more than 25,000 active duty personnel annually. TAF wants to obtain maximum utilization of its personnel by assigning the right person to the right job at the right time, To accomplish this task, decision-makers and personnel assignment staff should consider conflicting multiple objectives that create the widely known problem called "personnel assignment problem". To assist in this complicated task from a quantitative perspective, a preemptive goal programming approach was used to develop an integer programming (IP) model to capture the multiple objectives flexibly and interactively. A realistic size IP problem with random data was …

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The Distributer's Three-Dimensional Pallet-Packing Problem: A Human Intelligence-Based Heuristic Approach, Erhan Baltacioglu Mar 2001

The Distributer's Three-Dimensional Pallet-Packing Problem: A Human Intelligence-Based Heuristic Approach, Erhan Baltacioglu

Theses and Dissertations

The Distributor's Pallet Packing Problem is to load a set of distinct boxes with given dimensions on pallets or in containers to maximize volume utilization. This problem is still in its early stages of research, but there is a high level of interest in developing effective models to solve this NP-hard problem to reduce the time, energy and other resources spent in packing pallets. In its search to improve operations, the Air Force is also making an effort to solve this problem. Building an analytical model and developing a genetic algorithm approach have been tried, but the problem needs more …

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Modeling Information Assurance, Joseph E. Beauregard Mar 2001

Modeling Information Assurance, Joseph E. Beauregard

Theses and Dissertations

The ever-increasing speed of information systems allows decision-makers around the world to gather, process, and disseminate information almost instantaneously. However, with this benefit there comes a price. Information is valuable and therefore a target to those who do not have it or wish to destroy it. The Internet has allowed information to flow freely, but it has also made information vulnerable to many forms of corruption. The U. S. military controls much of the world's most sensitive information, and since it cannot sacrifice losing the speed at which this information is currently processed and disseminated, it must find a way …

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A Process For Vectoring Offensive Information Warfare As A Primary Weapon Option Within The United States Air Force, Sheila G. Bennett Mar 2001

A Process For Vectoring Offensive Information Warfare As A Primary Weapon Option Within The United States Air Force, Sheila G. Bennett

Theses and Dissertations

Consistently and comprehensively using Information Operations (IO) capabilities as primary weapon option within the Air Force is the next step to operationalizing IO within the Air Force. Doctrine and official guidance has set the variables of mission and concepts of operations, organizational structure, and IW players in place. The missing variable to operationalizing IO and probably the most difficult is the 'how' or process of the equation. This research will introduce a useable process that can be incorporated within the Air Force for integrating offensive IW activities into the current and given environment. The process is the basis for further …

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