Weapon-target-allocation strategies in multiagent target-missile-defender engagement

A cooperative interception scenario between multiple maneuvering targets, their defenders, and missiles attacking the targets is considered. To assign defenders to missiles, several computationally efficient weapon-target-allocation algorithms are developed. The algorithms use the adjoint system representation and are based on evaluating a figure of merit for the possible allocations of defenders to missiles, given that the allocation of missiles to targets is known. Furthermore, an optimal cooperative guidance law for the target is developed and, together with the weapon-target-allocation algorithms, evaluated in a nonlinear simulation setting. A comparison to the optimal allocation demonstrates the fact that the proposed weapon-target-allocation algorithms can provide close-to-optimal performance with a significant computational runtime improvement.