Lanchester's Square Law in Theory and Practice

This monograph conducts a statistical analysis of the National Training Center engagement data to determine to what extent that training adheres to the square law. The monograph discusses the theory of the square law, summarizes the findings of previous verification attempts, discusses the National Training Center as a laboratory for this analysis, presents the results of the statistical analysis and suggests that an exponential law is more appropriate. A discussion follows centered around the reason for this gap between theory and practice. The monograph discusses the problem of suppression as the missing link in the square law. The conclusion drawn is that whenever combat simulations are used, those simulations should account for the problem of suppression or else the results will be distorted. Furthermore, it appears that if combat follows an exponential law then the National Training Center training may come closer to combat than the US Army thinks. Keywords Lanchesters equations, Suppression, Marine engineers, Theory.