The Big Book of Warfare

NOTE: Never fear; the Big Book of Warfare will return in full!

I'm taking the chance that this tiresome server move and site rebrand offers me to go through the BBOW and curate it some more – move stuff that clearly should belong in the WW2 section there; and make the BBOW more of a “generic” reference section to answer questions that don't easily fit into a specific time period, as well as thoroughly revise everything to a common standard of formatting.

Interactive Programs

These client-side programs have been moved to “top of the list” due to the value that they offer the aspiring analyst.

Big Ballistics v1.3

(v1.2) (v1.1) (v1.08) (v1.07) (v1.06) (v1.01) (v1.00)
(Background to Big Ballistics – with original code)

This client-side JavaScript re-implementation of W.J. Juren's program described in Exterior Ballistics with MICROCOMPUTERS in Warships International (1984) provides a modern user interface that can be executed on anything with a web-browser these days (phone, tablet, PC, Mac, etc); enabling analysis of really big ballistic trajectories, unlike most ballistics apps out there which only work for “small” bullets – i.e. rifle caliber.

Enhanced Interactive Rocket Thrust Program v 1.00

This client-side JavaScript re-implementation of an old NASA educational website enables the user to estimate (roughly) the ISP and thrust of an appropriately sized and specified rocket engine using certain propellant mixtures. It's useful for Kerbal Space Program modding and for realistic near-term “hard sci fi”.

Rick Robinson's BIG GUN (v1.1b)

Estimates the ballistic trajectory and penetration of a naval gun. The original program logic for this was done in 2001 by Rick Robinson as a MS-DOS program. In 2024, I decided to convert it to an in-browser format. In this form, it works a lot better than the original MS-DOS program; as well as being accessible "on the go".

Rick Robinson's GALLEY

Estimates the top/cruise speeds of a oar-propelled ship. The original program logic for this was done in 2001 by Rick Robinson as a MS-DOS program. In 2024, I decided to convert it to an in-browser format. In this form, it works a lot better than the original MS-DOS program; as well as being accessible "on the go".

Rick Robinson's GALLEY

Rick Robinson Program Archive

This collects a series of ancient MS-DOS programs programmed by Rick Robinson back in the early 2000s, which used to be hosted on his websites. Some of them have source code, while others don't. They were recovered through my own backups and the Internet Archive. More information is available in the 0_DESC.TXT file.

Atomic, Biological and Chemical (ABC) Weapons

Nuclear Effects on Structures and Humans – This page cross-correlates photographs and data from Hiroshima and Nagasaki with computed data from the Defense Nuclear Agency's “Weapon Effects” program from 1984, as well as from other sources.

Ballistic Missile Defense Equations

SSBN Launch Times – This page collects tidbits relating to launch cycle times for US and Soviet SSBNs over the decades.

Mantle's Approximations for Figures of Merit in Ballistic Missile Trajectories – This page has Peter Mantle's approximations that will get you basic figures of merit for ballistic missiles on a minimum-energy trajectory (burnout speed, maximum altitude and flight time) for use in planning.

Unit Measurement Scales

Decibel Notation - This page introduces you to (and tells you how to calculate to/from) the Base 10 Logarithmic scale known as the Decibel (dB). This measurement unit is used widely in the sensor field (radars, sonar, etc) as it enables the writing of large digit numbers with acceptable precision. For example, if you are trying to express the RCS of an insect, it would be inconvenient to try and remember 0.00001 m2; but if you convert it to decibels, you can just say "-50 dBsm".

Irregular Area Calculator - This page (and its attendant calculator) was designed to automatically calculate the surface area of irregularly shaped items such as the deck area of an Iowa-class Battleship for more accurate estimates of the probability of hitting them with aerial bombs. For example, if we go by overall length and beam, the deck area of an Iowa is 95,796 ft2; but if we calculate more accurately with the calculator, we get 75,205 ft2, a reduction of 21.4%, which is quite significant.

Sonar

Sonar / Acoustic Bands – This page contains tables of known Sonar / Acoustic bands to help you understand what is meant by "ultrasonic", etc.

Radar

Radar / EM Bands – This page contains tables of known Radar/Electromagnetic Bands, from WWII to the present. Knowing the exact band that's being referred to is important as the same letter designations are recycled across different designation systems.

Radio/Optical Horizon Formulas – This page contains the formulas to calculate either the radar/radio/optical horizon as well as built-in calculators.

Radar Antenna Gain Formula – This page shows both the formula and has online tools intended to help you estimate the antenna gain for a particular radar, given frequency, antenna area, etc.

Radar Wavelength Formulas – This page contains both formulae and calculators intended to help you calculate the wavelength or frequency of a radar, given either it's frequency (MHz) or wavelength (meter or centimeter).

General Ballistics

Shell Drawing Measurement Tool – This online tool for measuring shell drawings to extract dimensional data and ratios from known diameters is designed to help the analyst extract the data he needs for some armor penetration calculations which are reliant on precise lengths/diameters, particularly sub-caliber penetrators such as APDS, HVAP, ACPR, etc.

Estimating Shell Weights via Scaling – Ever wonder what the mass of a shell would be if you scaled it up, i.e. what would a hypothetical 32-inch shell be if it had the same properties as a USN 16-inch Super-Heavy shell? Now you can. Includes a built in calculator.

Internal Ballistics

Estimating Muzzle Velocity of a Sub-Caliber Projectile – Use this to estimate how fast a sub-caliber projectile would leave the muzzle of a larger gun – i.e. how fast would a 37mm round go when fired from a Panther's 75mm gun? Includes built-in calculator.

Estimating Muzzle Velocity via Propellant Charge Weight – How fast can you throw a projectile with conventional gun propellant? What would happen if you put 50 kilograms of propellant underneath a 10 kilogram shell? Now you can find out. Useful for order of magnitude estimates, etc.

Estimating Muzzle Velocity via Gun Caliber – Sometimes all you have is the barest pieces of data on a gun, particularly for German “Paper” guns in World War II, where they're described as “7.5cm KWK 42 L/100” and that's it. However, it is possible to estimate muzzle velocity from gun caliber.

External Ballistics

ARMET-TR-17002 Linear Velocity Decay Formula – This is a linear velocity decay equation that also takes into account shell weight and diameter; so it's a bit more accurate than a straight linear extrapolation. It works best from Mach 0.8 (273.1 m/sec) to Mach 2.5 (853.44 m/sec) at sea level. It's good for quick order of magnitude approximations of striking velocities without messy/slow calculus/integration.

Vacuum Trajectories – This page contains the equations to compute the key parameters of a vacuum trajectory -- maximum horizontal range, maximum in-flight altitude and time of flight.

Terminal Ballistics

Armor Penetration - National Differences – Understanding national differences is extremely important to understand when evaluating "penetration" across countries. Case in point, the Germans rated the 8.8 cm KWK 43 (Tiger II) as having about 200~mm penetration, while the Soviets rated the same gun as only 138~mm penetration. This page will tell you why these differences appear in documentation.

Estimating Coverage for Bomblet Weapons – This page is designed to help estimate coverage areas for bomblet (ICM/DPICM) weapons which utilize submunitions.

Penetration Models/Equations/Formulas

Kinetic Energy Equations – This lists all the formulas to find KE, Mass or Velocity; as well as gives you an estimate of how much explosive force (in TNT equivalence) a KE penetrator crudely has.
BRL Concrete Perforation/Spalling Formula – This formula allows you to roughly estimate the penetration/scabbing of a shell striking concrete.
Gillingham Shear/Plug Equation + Calculator
ADSS-MRL Shear/Plug Equation + Calculator
McLeod Long Rod Penetration Formula – This formula was posted on Usenet nearly thirty years ago for long rods.
Rexford/Bird Scaled Penetration Formula – This formula was found in Rexford and Bird's WWII Ballistics: Armor and Gunnery (2E) and lets you estimate the penetration of a scaled up or down shell using a variant of the DeMarre equation combined with penetration information from an existing reference shell.
Garzke and Dulin Penetration Formula – This is a reverse-engineered version of the penetration formula that Garzke and Dulin used in their battleship books for armor penetration.
Tierberg Penetration Formula (via BIOS #1343 ADM 213/951) – This formula was used by the head Krupp designer during WWII until an unspecified point.
Shaped Charge Hydrodynamic Limit Penetration Formula – This formula was created around 1948 by Birkhoff, and despite it's flaws (it only considers jet/target densities), it can be useful.
Shaped Charge Swedish Fortification Penetration Formula – This variant of the Hydrodynamic Model was created by the Swedish FOI (Defence Research Agency) and used in the Swedish Design Manual for Protective Construction (FKR2011) by the Swedish Fortification Agency.

Probability in Military Operations

NDRC Small Target Bombing Probabilities Calculator – During WWII, the Applied Mathematics Panel of the U.S. National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) produced a small number of specialized slide rules for use by operations analysts. One of these slide rules was the Small Target Bombing Probabilities computer. I've managed to convert it to digital format with reasonable precision.

Weaponry Planning Factors

Efficiency of Multiple Gun Turrets on Warships (by Stuart Slade) – Twin turrets are not quite as effective as single turrets; there's a rough rule of thumb for this.

Calculating Artillery Piece Efficiency – This is a quick and dirty formula put forth in Brassey's Artillery of the World to show how efficient gun “X” is over gun “Y”.

Historical Probability of Hit (Phit) and Probability of Kill (Pkill) Percentages – This page collects various historical estimates over the years.

Heraldry / Colors / Markings

U.S. Military Aircraft Gauge Markings (1944 – Present) – This page contains a partial visual/textural description of US Military Aircraft Gauge markings since WWII.

U.S. Military Ammunition Markings – This page contains a visual and textural description of U.S. Ammunition marking codes (color and shapes) circa the early 2000s.

U.S. Navy Piping Colors (c. 1970s) – This page collates the pipe colors used to denote various subsystems on US Naval Warships of the 1970s period.

U.S. Military Heraldic Colors (formerly US Army Branch Colors)

U.S. Government Heraldic Colors – Covers National Park Service, Fish & Wildlife Service, Highway Signage, etc.

College Degree Colors – Why is this in the BBOW? It's because I began developing the BBOW to aid me in constructing a SF universe, and I’ve always been fascinated by regalia/heraldry/vexillology; so consider this page an unofficial “cheat sheet” to developing the jumpsuit color schemes your science eggheads wear in your fictional universes.

General Engineering

Industrial Tolerances over History – This is a short collection of tolerances over history to help give you an idea of just how precise “precision” is.

Engineering Safety Factors – A collection of engineering safety factors. Just how overbuilt are things?

Calculating Tensile Stress – Simple page on a simple thing. Might be useful somehow.

Computing Slant Ranges – Slant range is very important for calculating weapons effects against airborne or submerged targets, as well as ranges for sensor systems, because targets generally aren't on the same plane as the weapon/sensor itself.

DC Electric Motor Equations – Useful for calculating how much current draw your submarine's motors will use while submerged.

Estimating Piston Engine Power Output – Useful for calculating how horsepower a truck, tank or aviation engine can output given known specifications.

Metal Corrosion Rates – Just how long will that tank last sitting in a field? You can make an educated guess here.

Aviation Engineering

Aircraft Design Iterations – A Humorous Look – This rather humorous sequence of images illustrates neatly how a streamlined 350 km/hr (217 MPH) prototype bomber in 1935 became a rather ugly and slow 294 km/hr (182 MPH) production bomber by 1943.

Parametrically determining the Performance of Anti-Surface Missiles through the Breguet Equation – You can use the Breguet Equation to get a rough “order of magnitude” estimation of just how far your cruise missile / anti-ship missile can fly.

Aerodynamic Turn Radius Equation – This equation lets you estimate the rough turning performance of your aerodynamic vehicle for a given velocity and “G” force.

Atmosphere Calculator – This page contains code lifted from NASA's old Java-based AtmosModeler Simulator by Glenn Research Center. It's rather crude; but I don't feel like revising it significantly at the present time.

Dynamic Pressure and Safe Egress Limits – This page details how to calculate Dynamic Pressure (Q) and provides information on what type of escape mechanisms work for a given dynamic pressure.

Boeing's “Visibility Factor” Equation – This equation was apparently developed during “microfighter” studies at Boeing; to help compare various aircraft against the reference (a F-4 Phantom) visually.

Naval Engineering

Using the Admiralty Constant to Estimate Submerged Speeds for Submarines – This page and it's built in calculator let you estimate the submerged performance of a submarine using some basic parameters that are easily available.

Submarine Hull Materials – Lists the known submarine hull materials that I have been able to identify and their yield strengths.

Estimating Water Pressure at Depth – Formula and calculator to estimate water pressure on a submarine in either freshwater or saltwater.

Personnel

Estimating Total Costs Attached to Manpower – This page contains discussion on a general rule of thumb for indirect manpower costs for a billet.

US Military Promotion Rates – This page contains general information on how long in service someone is typically in at a certain rank, useful for developing RPGs, etc.

U.S. Military Doctor Rates – While it's easy to find out what unit a Captain or Colonel commands, it's a bit harder to find out what level of organization a military doctor commands. This page hopefully will help in clarifying this.

Planning

The Love-Dupuy Collection of Empirical Data and Models – This collection has an extremely large amount of historical data relating to casualty rates, force ratios, et cetera that I've collected in one place.

Flin's (Revised) Rules of Thumb for Troop Quality – This rough set of rules of thumb for estimating troop quality should help you in wargaming.

Combat Studies Institute #4: Notes on Military Elite Units (PDF) – This short research paper written in the late 1980s summarizes the thrust of Roger Beaumont's “Military Elites” and Eliot Cohen's “Commandos and Politicians: Elite Military Units in Modern Democracies”. It provides a nice list of the various types of elite units over history, why people join them, and their general characteristics. Useful to consult if you're designing a fictional elite unit.

Production Cost Curves – How much is something you're going to buy cost? Can we optimize for production even before we produce it? This page has equations to help estimate how much the Nth amount of item produced will cost, based off the first item's cost.

Historical Procurement Assumptions – At times, it can be frustratingly obtuse as to why militaries decide to buy “x” amount of equipment. This page collects historical assumptions used for past procurement decisions.

Historical Procurement Timescales – Here are some carefully gathered and curated timescales for various pieces of equipment to help you estimate equipment procurement cycles – i.e. how long did it take the US to design the M4 Sherman, for example?

Shipbuilding Intervals – How to compute how often your nation should be ordering “big ticket” warships to maintain your current force levels.

Distances at which Visual/Aural disturbances can be identified – This page contains helpful information on how far certain things can be seen, such as a lit cigarette at night, etc. Useful for planning smaller scale tactical combat (at least for humans).

Logistics (Horse Cavalry) – This page collects tidbits regarding historical cavalry logistics.

Space

The Drake Equation

Basic Human Life Support Needs – How many pounds of oxygen do you need to take along with you on a space mission? How many pounds of fecal matter is generated?

Designation/Naming Systems