A Tool to Assist With Emplacing Support Units on the Battlefield

摘要

When emplacing a support unit, such as a brigade support battalion, on the battlefield, a commander and his staff must consider the mission, enemy, terrain and weather, troops and support available, time available, and civil considerations (METT-TC). They use their experience and training to make sense of the multiple qualitative and quantitative factors that go into evaluating each variable. This article describes a simple Microsoft Excel spreadsheet model that will assist commanders in determining where to place support units.The goal of the spreadsheet is to minimize distances from the support unit to customer units and higher echelon supply nodes, such as railheads, ports, and transfer points, based on various weights and constraints defined by the user.