Network Optimization Models for Resource Allocations in Developing Military Countermeasures

Abstract

A military arms race is characterized by an iterative development of measures and countermeasures. An attacker attempts to introduce new weapons in order to gain some advantage. whereas a defender attempts to develop countermeasures that can mitigate or even eliminate the effects of the weapons. This paper addresses the defender's decision problem: given limited resources, which countermeasures should be developed and how much should be invested in their development to minimize the damge caused by the attacker's weapos over a certain time horizon. We formulate several optimization models, corresponding to different operational settings, as sonstrained shortest-path problems and variants thereof. We then demonstrate the potential applicability and robusteness of this apporach with respect to various scenarios.