The overall dynamic development of operational research in various fields of human activities urges the need for a clearer and mathematically more explicit classification of its methods. This need is also very urgent in the field of defense, particularly because of the complications of modern conflicts, as well as of new security requirements. One of the possible classifications of methods based on the theory of games as a mathematical model for solving conflict situations is presented in this paper. The connections between methods and their mathematical description are underlined. | Yugoslav Journal of Operations Research 16 (2006), Number 2, 227-234 POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION OF THE METHODS OF OPERATIONAL RESEARCH APPLICABLE IN THE FIELD OF DEFENSE Spasoje MUČIBABIĆ Military Academy, Serbian Army, Beograd, Serbia Received: April 2006 / Accepted: September 2006 Abstract: The overall dynamic development of operational research in various fields of human activities urges the need for a clearer and mathematically more explicit classification of its methods. This need is also very urgent in the field of defense, particularly because of the complications of modern conflicts, as well as of new security requirements. One of the possible classifications of methods based on the theory of games as a mathematical model for solving conflict situations is presented in this paper. The connections between methods and their mathematical description are underlined. Keywords: Classification of methods, conflict, games, military applications. 1. INTRODUCTION Operational research as a set of scientific, mathematical, and statistical methods for solving problems in various areas of human activities has been developed intensely within the last fifty years, [1], [5], [7], [14], [14]. Defense is regarded as the cradle of operational research, and has found its own place in almost all fields of human activities. The relevancy of the theory of games was also approved by the fact that the Nobel Prize for economics in 1994 and again in 2005 was awarded to the scientist who has mostly worked in this field [1]. The complex environment of various systems of defense, especially under war conditions, emphasizes the requirement for a special methodology to be used for solving acute problems [13]. Such methodology has to rely on the basis of mathematics, statistics, and heuristics. This paper presents an attempt to classify operational research methods used for solving problems in defense, with respect to the mentioned scientific 228 S. Mučibabić / Possible Classification of
