Anti‐ship missile defense for a naval task group

Abstract

AbstractIn this study, we present a new formulation for the air defense problem of warships in a naval task group and propose a solution method. We define the missile allocation problem (MAP) as the optimal allocation of a set of surface‐to‐air missiles (SAMs) of a naval task group to a set of attacking air targets. MAP is a new treatment of an emerging problem fostered by the rapid increase in the capabilities of anti‐ship missiles (ASMs), the different levels of air defense capabilities of the warships against the ASM threat, and new technology that enables a fully coordinated and collective defense. In addition to allocating SAMs to ASMs, MAP also schedules launching of SAM rounds according to shoot‐look‐shoot engagement policy or its variations, considering multiple SAM systems and ASM types. MAP can be used for air defense planning under a given scenario. As thorough scenario analysis would require repetitive use of MAP, we propose efficient heuristic procedures for solving the problem. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2011