Operational planning for theater anti-submarine warfare

Abstract

Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operational planning has always been a complicated process, involving the assignment of limited resources across multiple mission areas over an extended period of time. With the emergence of more advanced adversary submarine capabilities, the need to plan for this underwater threat has become even more important. We modify an existing optimization model of the ASW operational planning problem to add the ability to have multiple search platforms of several types, allow more complicated synergistic interactions between them, and then test it inside a realistic scenario to develop a tool to aid ASW planners. The scenario includes three types of ASW platforms: ships, submarines, and aircraft working out of two operating bases in the Western Pacific with six notional but geologically realistic mission areas. An optimal solution assigns combinations of multiple platforms to the mission areas to reach and maintain threshold levels, or the minimum probability of detection required, set by the commander. The model measures time and effort put forth by these platforms to achieve desired levels of achievement measured in terms of a weighted percent clearance.