Modeling military strategic effects with an input–output metamodel

Incorporating strategic effects to assess effects-based operations into a combat simulation is a challenging task. Where detailed interactions between different functions are difficult to incorporate in a combat model, the authors propose implementing the Leontief's macro-economic input-–output model as a metamodel. In this military application, the economic sectors are replaced with combat functions. The input–output model links disperate functions that are not currently linked in the underlying model. The article demonstrates the approach by incorporating the impacts of air attacks against communication centers on ground combat unit strengths. This approach provides a relatively simple first-order approximation to incorporating and assessing critical interactions in combat simulations.