A tri-objective, dynamic weapon assignment model for surface-based air defence

Abstract

In a military surface-based air defence environment, a fire control officer typically employs a computerised weapon assignment decision support subsystem to aid him in the assignment of available surface-based weapon systems to engage aerial threats in an attempt to protect defended surface assets - a problem known in the military operations research literature as the weapon assignment problem. In this paper, a tri-objective, dynamic weapon assignment model is proposed by modelling the weapon assignment problem as a multi-objective variation of the celebrated vehicle routing problem with time windows. A multi-objective, evolutionary metaheuristic for solving the vehicle routing problem with time windows is used to solve the model. The workability of this modelling approach is illustrated by solving the model in the context of a simulated, surface-based air defence scenario.