This article is about a target acquisition system. For the archaeological ranking system see the Carver matrix seriation diagram

The CARVER matrix was developed by the United States special operations forces

United States Special Operations Forces

United States Special Operations Forces under United States Special Operations Command are active and reserve component forces of U.S. Military...

 during the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

. CARVER is an acronym that stands for Criticality, Accessibility, Recuperability, Vulnerability, Effect and Recognizability and is a system to identify and rank specific targets so that attack resources can be efficiently used.

History

During the Vietnam war the US special forces required a system of target acquisition that would rank potential targets according to a scale. During the war the CARVER matrix system was developed to fulfil those needs. It has been recently used in targeting Filipino insurgence groups like Jemaah Islamiyah

Jemaah Islamiyah

Jemaah Islamiah , is a Southeast Asian militant Islamic organization dedicated to the establishment of a Daulah Islamiyah in Southeast Asia incorporating Indonesia, Malaysia, the southern Philippines, Singapore and Brunei...

.

Using the system

This system has been developed in order to aid Special Operations Forces (SOF)

Special forces

Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...

 and more recently Department of Energy (DOE)

United States Department of Energy

The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...

, Department of State (DOS)

United States Department of State

The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...

, Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

United States Department of Homeland Security

The United States Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet department of the United States federal government, created in response to the September 11 attacks, and with the primary responsibilities of protecting the territory of the United States and protectorates from and responding to...

 and various private and commercial security assets, in target selection and Risk/Vulnerability assessments by calculating the value of a given potential target and the ease with which such a target could be neutralized. Or in other words, it's a logical way of looking at what one might want to do and whether or not it is possible, based on the resources one has to work with. These factors are also the acronym of the system name CARVER: Criticality, Accessibility, Recuperability, Vulnerability, Effect and Recognizability. In the offensive, employing the Carver matrix can help identify targets that are vulnerable to attack and for defensive purposes the Carver matrix can indicate "High Risk" targets that require additional security assets allotted to them to prevent the degradation of said assets via enemy assault or terrorist action . In the below table is an example of such a matrix that uses the CARVER system for striking a Water sanitation center:

Target	C	A	R	V	E	R	Total
Water intake	1	1	3	4	2	1	11
Sanitation processors	3	2	1	5	5	2	18
Power center	2	3	1	2	2	1	11

Looking at the table, the target with the highest score is the Sanitation processors which have a score total of 18. Thus, using the system, more attack resources (time, money, tools, personnel etc.) should be assigned to hit the Sanitation processors.

Other users

While designed for the military the CARVER matrix can be used for a variety of other purposes including management and setting goals. As long as you have a clear set goal in mind you can apply the system to anything. For example a manager of a gym wants to increase his sales and membership numbers thus using the Matrix system:

Potential projects	C	A	R	V	E	R	Total
Start website	5	8	4	6	5	7	35
Referral campaign	9	9	7	8	6	9	48
Flier distribution	7	8	4	10	4	10	43

So again looking at the score we can see that starting an aggressive members referral plan would be the best option according to the matrix.

Carver matrix in archaeology

See Main:Carver matrix seriation diagram

Martin Carver

Martin Carver

Martin Oswald Hugh Carver FSA , is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of York, England, director of the Sutton Hoo Research Project and a leading exponent of new methods in excavation and survey. He specialises in the archaeology of early Medieval Europe...

 also developed a system called that he named after himself called, the Carver matrix. Similar to the Harris matrix

Harris matrix

The Harris matrix is a tool used to depict the temporal succession of archaeological contexts and thus the sequence of deposition on a 'dry land' archaeological site. The matrix reflects the relative position and stratigraphic contacts of observable stratigraphic units, or contexts. The Matrix was...

 Martin Carver's system was a Carver matrix seriation diagram, known as the Carver matrix. This diagram, which is based on the Harris matrix is designed to represent the time lapse in use of recognizable archaeological entities such as floors and pits.