ON A NONLINEAR LANCHESTER COMBAT MODEL OF NETWORK CENTRIC WARFARE TYPE AND AN ANALYSIS OF OPTIMAL FIRE ALLOCATIONS

Abstract

In this work, we introduce a nonlinear Lanchester model of Network centric warfare (NCW)-type and study a problem of finding the optimal fire allocation for this model. A Blue party B will fight against a Red party consisting of A and R, where A is an independent force and R fights with supports from a supply unit N. Optimal fire allocation will then be sought in the form of piece-wise constant functions so that the remaining force of B is as large as possible. For this model, we also introduce a notion of threatening rates which are computed for A,R,N at each stage of the battle. These rates will then be used to derive the optimal fire allocation for B. Several numerical experiments are presented to justify the theoretical findings.