Dynamic Weapon-Target Assignment for Active Protection of Aircraft

Abstract

AbstractThe scenario of the active protection of an aircraft is that the aircraft threatened by multiple incoming missiles (denoted as attackers) defends itself by launching multiple defending missiles (denoted as defenders). To assign defenders to attackers properly so that the survivability of the aircraft is maximized, a multi-objective Dynamic Weapon Target Assignment (DWTA) model is developed. The objectives include: the hit probability of each defender, the miss distance of each defender, the final speed of each defender, and the distance between the aircraft and the attacker when the attacker is intercepted. These objectives are various and can be calculated based on the given flight states. Machine learning algorithms are used to predict these objectives so that the computational runtime is improved. With the calculated objectives, the DWTA problem can be solved using the Kuhn–Munkres algorithm. A comparison to the traditional single objective model demonstrates that the proposed multi-objective DWTA model can provide better solution with a computational runtime improvement.KeywordsWeapon target assignmentAircraft protectionDecision making