Development and Analysis of Military Cost-Imposing Actions.

We present a systematic approach to identify potential military cost-imposing actions and possible adversary responses. The cost imposition is evaluated in terms of budgets and resources over an extended period of time. Hence, the decision space for cost-imposing actions and responses are force mix choices and adopting new strategies that affect a potential future conflict. The cost imposer takes an initial action, such as deploying an advanced system with new technology, intended to cause the targeted opponent to expend more resources in countering this initiative. We estimate the extent of the adversary's response to maintain their overall effectiveness in the projected military campaign. We evaluate the ratios of costs for the adversary responses that are sufficient to achieve the original effectiveness over the cost of military actions of imposition; these ratios are the relative cost incurred. Ratios greater than 1 represent viable cost-imposing actions, with higher ratios being better for the cost imposer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]