A fractal-based approach to equations of attrition

Recent land and joint operations highlight a trend towards greater dispersion of forces on the battlefield. This is particularly true when an operation is not traditional warfare (for example, part of a peace enforcement mission). Current methods struggle to describe the dispersed battlefield, particularly when the participants do not necessarily follow one particular doctrine. This paper uses a cellular-automaton tool to explore dispersed bettlefields. It is shown how the results of this modeling differ from more traditional approaches such as the Lanchester equation. These results have contributed to force structure studies currently in progress for the New Zealand Army, in particular, pointing to the value of human intelligence and C2 networks.