Multi-objective Optimization to Support Rapid Air Operations Mission Planning

P. Gonsalves and J. Burge

SPIE Defense and Security Symposium, vol 5805, Orlando, FL (March)

The importance of Time-Sensitive targets (TSTs) and Time-Critical targets (TCTs) within military air operations has been met with a significant investment in advanced technologies and platforms to meet these challenges. Developments in ISR systems, manned and unmanned air platforms, precision guided munitions, and network-centric warfare have made significant strides for ensuring timely prosecution of TSTs/TCTs. However, additional investments are needed to further decrease the targeting decision cycle. Given the operational needs for decision support systems to enable time-sensitive/time-critical targeting, we present a tool for the rapid generation and analysis of mission plan solutions to address TSTs/TCTs. Our system employs a genetic algorithm (GA) -based multi-objective optimization scheme that is well suited to the rapid generation of approximate solutions in a dynamic environment. GAs allow for the effective exploration of the search space for potentially novel solutions, while addressing the multiple conflicting objectives that characterize the prosecution of TSTs/TCTs (e.g. probability of target destruction, time to accomplish task, level of disruption to other mission priorities, level of risk to friendly assets, etc.).

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