Title: Dynamic air tasking evaluation in a simulated network-centric battlespace

Authors: Madjid Tavana, Matthew D. Bailey, Timothy E. Busch

Addresses: Management Information Systems, La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA 19141, USA. ' Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA 17837, USA. ' Air Force Research Laboratory, AFRL/IFSB, 525 Brooks Road, Rome, NY 13441, USA

Abstract: Joint Air Operations (JAO) are historically designed through centralised planning using static air tasking that assigns air assets to mission packages for the purpose of achieving campaign objectives. The current methodology cannot anticipate changes in the battlespace nor take advantage of real-time information. In this study, we develop a simulation model of the battlespace that utilises a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) model to assign vehicles to targets by considering four competing objectives (effort, effectiveness, efficiency, and connectivity). A Voronoi network is used to determine the paths of vehicles to their assigned targets and network optimisation is used to validate the quality of the assignments. The results indicate that dynamic air tasking is considerably more effective and more efficient than static air tasking.

Keywords: vehicle-target assignment; simulation; MCDA; multi-criteria decision analysis; network optimisation; multi-hop connectivity; Voronoi network; joint air operations; JAO; dynamic air tasking; air tasking evaluation; network-centric battlespace; air assets; mission packages; modelling; vehicle paths; task allocation; warfare.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOR.2009.024527

International Journal of Operational Research, 2009 Vol.5 No.1, pp.1 - 25

Published online: 08 Apr 2009 *

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