Assigning nuclear weapons with reactive tabu search

This article examines solving complex weapon-to-target assignment problems. Preprocessing of options is used to account for three nonlinearities: the selection of nuclear aimpoints that affect multiple targets, bomber and cruise missile routes, and feasible target sets for ballistic missile with Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicles. The formulation considers attack strategies that consist of one or two weapons against each target group. In addition, the formulation ensures selected attack strategies are supported by selecting corresponding delivery systems or routes. The resulting formulation considers hundreds of thousands of attack strategies along with corresponding weapon system delivery options. The tabu search quickly obtains high quality solutions with either prioritized or weighted goals. Since tabu search finds solutions in less then half the flight-time of attacking ballistic missiles, this research creates opportunities for flexible US nuclear war responses that incorporate the latest military intelligence. Military planners may find similar applications of tabu search provide solutions for other complex problems.