Optimizing Assignments of Air-to-Ground Assets and BDA Sensors

Abstract

Finding the correct balance between investment in weapons and information assets has proven to be a substantial challenge. Information alone cannot defeat the enemy on the battlefield, but modern long-range weaponry is useless without the information necessary to deploy it. We present a new optimization methodology that combines attack assets and bomb-damage assessment sensors in a single allocation model. The resulting model allows analysis of the tradeoffs between information (sensor) and transformation (attack) assets. We discuss the computational difficulties of the problem and cover the motivating ideas behind the methodology. Then, we outline the mathematical techniques used, and present results for a notational data set.