In this contribution to the Lessons Learned Project, Matthew R. MacLeod (Canada) and William M. Wardrop (UK) discuss the role of Operational Analysis (OA) for the work of the Combined Maritime Forces. As they discuss in the paper, operational analysis was instrumental to ensure an effective employment of naval assets in an operational area of over 2.5 million square miles. They discuss the challenges of covering such a large area of operations with relatively few units, and how OA contributed to tracking and reporting realistic effectiveness. They conclude in discussing recent attempts to deepen the analysis of the maritime pattern of life.
The paper can be read here. It was originally presented at the 32nd International Symposium of Military Operational Research, July 2015.