Vojenské Rozhledy

Czech Military Review

Vojenské rozhledy / Czech Military Review Nr. 2/2025, Vol. XXXIV. (LXVI.): 139-154


Force Ratio and Battle CasualtiesReviewed - Research

Vladimír Vráb Author profile1, Jan Zezula Author profileORCID...1
1 Univerzita obrany, Brno, Česká republika

The assessment of force ratios and battle casualties is a crucial aspect of the military decision-making process. This article evaluates three different tools used by the Army of the Czech Republic at the tactical level: a calculator based on Lanchester's laws, a module within the Battle Information System, and a constructive simulation system. The results indicate that while all tools produce similar outputs, the constructive simulation system offers more accurate estimates of combat losses for both equipment and personnel. Additionally, this system enhances the ability of commanders and staff to adapt to changing scenarios during planning. The primary conclusion is that the constructive simulation system provides a practical and flexible solution for supporting the military decision-making process at the brigade and battalion levels.

Keywords: Combat Potential; Battle Casualties; Experiment; Computer Simulation of Battle; Force Ratio

Published: January 2, 2026  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Vráb, V., & Zezula, J. (2025).
Force Ratio and Battle Casualties. Czech Military Review, 106(2), 139-154
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Allen, Patrick D. 1992. "Situational Force Scoring: Accounting for Combined Arms Effects in Aggregate Combat Models". Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. Accessed March 07, 2025. https://1url.cz/I18vA
    2. Barham, Brian D. 1995. "What is Relative about Combat Power?". School of Advanced Military Studies, United States Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Accessed March 07, 2025. https://1url.cz/11xua
    3. U.S. Army. 2000. "Battle Book. Student Text 100-3". U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Accessed March 07, 2025. https://1url.cz/c16E3
    4. Davis, Paul K. 1995. "Aggregation, Disaggregation, and the 3:1 Rule in Ground Combat". RAND Corporation. Santa Monica, California. Accessed March 07, 2025. https://1url.cz/K16EY
    5. Force Ratios. 2021."Force Ratio Calculator v 3.0". Accessed March 07, 2025. https://1url.cz/R16hE
    6. Joshua, Christian T. 2019. "An Examination of Force Ratios". School of Advanced Military Studies US Army Command and General Staff College Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Accessed March 07, 2025. https://1url.cz/S16EI
    7. Kress, M. and I. Talmor. 1999. "A new look at the 3:1 rule of Combat through Markov Stochastic Lanchester models". Journal of the Operational Research Society (1999) 50, 733-744, Operational Research Society Ltd. Accessed March 07, 2025. https://1url.cz/G1xue
    8. Lanchester, Frederick W. 1916. "Aircraft in Warfare. The Dawn of the Fourth Arm". London. Accessed March 07, 2025. https://1url.cz/11ADY
    9. Lanchester, Frederick W. 1916. "Mathematics in Warfare". ISBN: L-999-72144. Accessed March 07, 2025. https://1url.cz/t16Eq
    10. Litvinas, Matthew, Roger Azevedo, Robert Sottilare, Christopher Ballinger, Christopher McGroarty, and Shuowen Hu. 2024. "Tip of the Spear: Developing Predictive Military Planning Tools Using Hidden Markov Models". University of Central Florida. Accessed March 07, 2025. https://1url.cz/S+xuH
    11. McGrath, John J. 2007. "The Other End of the Spear: The Tooth-to-Tail Ratio (T3R) in Modern Military Operations". The Long War Series Occasional Paper 23. Combat Studies Institute Press. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Accessed March 07, 2025. https://1url.cz/F16Ex
    12. Osipov, M. 1915. "The Influence of the Numerical Strength of Engaged Forces on Their Casualties". Translation of September 1991 by Dr. Robert L. Helmbold and Dr. Allan S. Rehm. AD-A241 534. Accessed March 07, 2025. https://1url.cz/D16E2
    13. Reach, Clint, Vikram Kilambi and Mark Cozad. 2020. "Russian Assessments and Application of the Correlation of Forces and Means". RAND Corporation. Santa Monica. California. Accessed March 07, 2025. https://1url.cz/716pe
    14. Řehka, Karel. 2022. "Projev náčelníka Generálního štábu AČR na velitelském shromáždění". Ministerstvo obrany, Praha. Accessed March 07, 2025. https://1url.cz/D1mK1
    15. Ryan Jr., Thomas R. 2022. "Warfighting. A Function of Combat Power". Military Review September-October 2022. Accessed March 07, 2025. https://1url.cz/3uOpz
    16. Spurlin, Dale and Matthew Green. 2017. "Demystifying the Corelation of Forces Calculator". Accessed March 07, 2025. https://1url.cz/91xTh
    17. Tillman, M. E. 1996. "Optimizing Force Ratio to Develop a Course of Action for the G3 (Operations Officer)". Math. Comput. Modelling Vol. 23, No. 1/2. Elsevier Science Ltd. Printed in Great Britain, pp. 55-63. Accessed March 07, 2025. https://1url.cz/r16By
    18. Vráb, Vladimír a Jan Zezula. 2024. "Force Ratio CZ". Případová studie. Brno: Univerzita obrany.
    19. Zanella, James A. 2012. "Combat Power Analysis is Combat Power Density". School of Advanced Military Studies United States Army Command and General Staff College Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Accessed March 07, 2025. https://1url.cz/z16EC

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content