USMA Digital Commons (United States Military Academy, West Point)
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The Autopilot Problem
No full textThe world is becoming increasingly automated, with computers embedded in devices we use every day. What can we learn from the aviation industry about what to automate, and how to handle the failure of those automations
Overpressure Effects on Quadcopter Stability from Tank Muzzle Blasts
No full textThe purpose of this project was to test the stability of a small unmanned aerial system near an M1A1 Abrams tank during live fire. Pairing drones with combat vehicles is an active area of research, but there is a lack of information pertaining to the performance and stability of small air vehicle in the immediate vicinity of large caliber weapon systems during engagements. This initiative was an undergraduate capstone design project with a team of four students and three advisors. The project’s primary focus was the design and fabrication of a quadcopter, its peripheral hardware and software, a ground control system, and a wireless communications link. The secondary focus of the project was the test itself, to include multiple subsystem tests and full system flight tests and rehearsals prior to the final test. The team conducted live fire testing in Fort Benning, Georgia, and saw a negligible deviation in the position and pose of the aircraft with and without a shot. This test demonstrated the stability of the drone during passage of the overpressure wave
Challenging the Narrative: Rhodesian Political Strategy Supporting Military Success During the Bush War (1965-1979)
Full text linkBody shape and performance on the US Army Combat Fitness Test: Insights from a 3D body image scanner.
No full textOBJECTIVE: To identify relationships between body shape, body composition, sex and performance on the new US Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT).
METHODS: Two hundred and thirty-nine United States Military Academy cadets took the ACFT between February and April of 2021. The cadets were imaged with a Styku 3D scanner that measured circumferences at 20 locations on the body. A correlation analysis was conducted between body site measurements and ACFT event performance and evaluated using Pearson correlation coefficients and p-values. A k-means cluster analysis was performed over the circumference data and ACFT performance were evaluated between clusters using t-tests with a Holm-Bonferroni correction.
RESULTS: The cluster analysis resulted in 5 groups: 1. V shaped males, 2. larger males, 3. inverted V shaped males and females, 4. V shaped smaller males and females, and 5. smallest males and females. ACFT performance was the highest in Clusters 1 and 2 on all events except the 2-mile run. Clusters 3 and 4 had no statistically significant differences in performance but both clusters performed better than Cluster 5.
CONCLUSIONS: The association between ACFT performance and body shape is more detailed and informative than considering performance solely by sex (males and females). These associations may provide novel ways to design training programs from baseline shape measurements
Extending Threat Playbooks for Cyber Threat Intelligence: A Novel Approach for APT Attribution
No full textAs cyber attacks grow in complexity and frequency, cyber threat intelligence (CTI) remains a priority objective for defenders. A critical component of CTI at the strategic level of defensive operations is attack attribution. Attributing an attack to a threat group informs defenders on adversaries that are actively engaging them and advances their ability respond. In this paper, we propose a data analytic approach towards threat attribution using adversary playbooks of tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). Specifically, our approach uses association rule mining on a large real world CTI dataset to extend known threat TTP playbooks with statistically probable TTPs the adversary may deploy. The benefits are twofold. First, we offer a dataset of learned TTP associations and extended threat playbooks. Second, we show that we can attribute attacks using a weighted Jaccard similarity with 96% accuracy
Winning Over The Tribes In Mandate Trans-Jordan: Security, Economics, Identity, And Chance
Full text linkBrewing Success in a Drought: How National Breweries Used Prohibition to Their Advantage
Full text linkMicrotargeting Unmasked: Safeguarding Law Enforcement, the Military, and the Nation in the Era of Personalized Threats
Full text linkMicrotargeting is the practice of collecting and analyzing personal data to create highly specific messaging for advertising, marketing, and influence campaigns. With microtargeting, the adversary’s goal is to destabilize the leadership and decision-making of federal institutions tasked with protecting the population. This report describes how, in the coming decade, state and non-state adversaries will use microtargeting tactics to attack high-value individuals (HVIs) in military, law enforcement, and civilian leadership to stigmatize, extort, and even assassinate figures crucial to the security and stability of the United States. Adversaries will also use microtargeting tactics to manipulate and exploit individuals in proximity to HVIs when the HVI is unreachable (e.g., physical proximity, familial ties, business associates, and/or friends)