Air-to-air combat using the second order differential dynamic programming algorithm

Abstract

Projections of future air-to-air combat indicate that it will occur against a numerically superior adversary in a dense threat environment. A flight management system for air combat planning will aid the future pilot in producing tactics to effectively engage multiple targets. Implicit in attack planning is the generation of optimized trajectories. In this paper, preliminary results of the application of the second order differential dynamic programming (DDP) algorithm to several air combat trajectory generation problems, are presented. The cost functions that were formulated for these problems are reviewed. Enhancements that were made to the DDP algorithm to improve convergence properties and decrease computation time, are discussed. An alternative approach to differential gaming to solve realistic 1 -vs1 air combat problems, is presented.