Anti-ship missile defense for a naval task group

In 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.