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To: spokeshave; Travis McGee
Spokeshave ....Thanks for the information. I've been subjected to everything from Sun Tzu ,Maslow to Demming and now Six Sigma. Guess I'll have to surf some of the web sites with the Lanchester Strategy .

Stay Safe and again.....Thanks.

21 posted on 01/31/2003 6:36:35 PM PST by Squantos (RKBA the original version of Homeland Security .....the one proven method that works !)
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To: Squantos
Actually I just meant the snake pic at #12!
22 posted on 01/31/2003 6:41:40 PM PST by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: Squantos
What he's really referring to are Lanchester's equations. Basically, Lanchester observed that as ranged fires replaced close combat as the primary casualty generator, the nature of warfare changed, and gave a great deal more emphasis on numeric superiority.

For example, in a battle between 1000 men on side A and 750 men on side B in the era of close combat (sword and shield), you'd wind up with 250 men on Side A and 0 on Side B after an engagement to the finish. That's a 75% loss rate for the superior force.

With ranged fire, you have a more complex situation. The following example ignores terrain and morale for the purposes of illustrating the basic principle.

Suppose that Side A has 1,000 soldiers engaged, against 750 for Side B. Casualty rates are identical: 10% per volley of fire (1000 soldiers firing = 100 hits). Volleys are assumed to occur simultaneously.

We come up with the following table:

Time Increment Side A Force Side B Force Ratio A:B
0 1,000 750 1.33
1 925 650 1.42
2 860 558 1.54
3 804 472 1.70
4 757 392 1.93
5 718 316 2.27
6 686 244 2.81
7 662 175 3.78
8 644 109 5.91
9 633 45 14.07
10 628 0 Infinite

As you can see, the side with superior numbers gains an ever-widening level of superiority over the enemy, taking less than 40% losses in exchange for annihilating the enemy.

28 posted on 01/31/2003 7:08:33 PM PST by Poohbah (Beware the fury of a patient man -- John Dryden)
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