The need for allocating resources to “combat-effectiveness measurements” from initial R&D to obsolescence

Operations analysts and weapons designers all agree on the extreme difficulty of collecting “hard” data on the performance of weapons systems. This paper presents case studies from World War II through Southeast Asia, which illustrate the prevalence of the problem and also show how, for the lack of quite minor detailed information, incorrect conclusions have been reached in operations analysis reports, leading to unnecessarily costly operations.