Journal of Defense Management
Open Access

Abstract

Misconception and Clarification: A Brief Discussion about the Article "Value and Methods of Measuring Combat Effectiveness: A New Approach".

Jiesheng Wang* and Weipu Sun

Combat effectiveness is the core of all military monographs, and its measurement is also the basis of many war studies. We propose a new research pathway and describe an appropriate mathematical method to reach universally applicable results. Our method requires only simple spatial and temporal data to calculate combat effectiveness without relying on subjective assumptions that involve other parameters. A reader asked us a question in his letter: why did he use the measurement formula given by us to measure the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army in the first half of the 20^th century as 0? We explained this: What he measured was the overall combat effectiveness of the Japanese army relative to its opponents. Before the United States entered the war in 1942, the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army was stronger than that of its opponent. After the United States entered the war in 1942, the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army was weaker than that of its opponent. The two cancel each other, so the overall combat effectiveness was equal to zero.

Published Date: 2022-07-29; Received Date: 2022-06-17