A fuzzy logic approach for intelligence analysis of actual and simulated military reconnaissance missions

Over the past decade the role and focus of the Army has changed drastically. The days of the Cold War are gone and with the recent cutbacks in the military budget, efforts must be refocused on building the Army of the future. Today's leaders believe the future of the Army is in information and digital technologies. Many challenges face the Army as they venture into the information technology world. Full exploitation of information and digital technologies will present major challenges for developers of these systems. Fortunately, technologies have arisen in the computer science field that will contribute to solutions to many of the problems these developers will face. One specific technology, fuzzy logic, which has been applied only to a very limited degree in military systems, holds great promise. The information used in the planning and conduct of military operations has very high levels of uncertainty and ambiguity. Fuzzy logic technologies provide an effective means to address, and even exploit, this uncertainty and ambiguity. This paper shows the applicability of fuzzy logic technologies to a specific military application by automating a specific intelligence analysis task. The task involves evaluating the suitability of various locations for the conduct of a reconnaissance mission. The positive results produced through this effort underscore the overall desirability of applying fuzzy logic technology to problems in the military domain.