Analytics, Operations Research, and Strategic Decision Making in the Military

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the operations research techniques employed across the Department of Defense, focusing on how the operations research officers and government civilians contribute to senior leader decisions. There are four general areas that the Department of Defense conducts operations research: assessing strategic goals through a gap determination process; assessing the effectiveness of operations and exercises, wargaming, modeling, and simulation of combat for strategic analysis and acquisition; and personnel analysis across the Joint Force. The authors will describe the management processes and components of military only so far as needed to provide the context and background required to adequately describe the operations research techniques. This chapter will contribute to the overall mission of this book by generalizing the techniques used by the military to demonstrate how analysts can better evaluate proposed and existing programs throughout the government and the public sector.