A prototype decision aid for estimating salvo damage effects based on a cellular model

Abstract

This study addresses the development of a Tactical Decision Aid to assess expected damage to a target from a salvo of warheads. It is based on a recently developed Cellular Target Concept. A secondary purpose for the development of the TDA was its potential use as an investigatory tool. Previous work with cellular targets has been confined to models whose characteristics lead to simple mathematical solutions. Many target models do not lead to simple solutions. There has been some interest in observing if these models resemble the simple models asymptotically. The TDA has been designed to allow for a better understanding of how damage aggregates in these more complex models, especially when compared to the proportional damage aggregation observed in many of the simpler models. The comparisons yielded some surprising results. None of the models designed to test asymptotic proportionality appeared to show this property in the long run. Some theories are discussed in the study. The theoretical tools used to test the asymptotic behavior of the models are discussed in an appendix.