Leveraging Machine Learning for Operation Assessment

The authors describe an approach for leveraging machine learning to support assessment of military operations. They demonstrate how machine learning can be used to rapidly and systematically extract assessment-relevant insights from unstructured text available in intelligence reporting, operational reporting, and traditional and social media. These data, already collected by operational-level headquarters, are often the best available source of information about the local population and enemy and partner forces but are rarely included in assessment because they are not structured in a way that is easily amenable to analysis. The machine learning approach described in this report helps overcome this challenge.