Network Optimization Models for Resource Allocation in Developing Military Countermeasures

Abstract

A military arms race is characterized by an iterative development of measures and countermeasures. An attacker attempts to introduce new weapons in order to gain some advantage, whereas a defender attempts to develop countermeasures that can mitigate or even eliminate the effects of the weapons. This paper addresses the defender's decision problem: given limited resources, which countermeasures should be developed and how much should be invested in their development so as to minimize the damage caused by the attacker's weapons over a certain time horizon. We formulate several optimization models, corresponding to different operational settings, as constrained shortest path problems and variants thereof. We then demonstrate the potential applicability and robustness of this approach with respect to various scenarios.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 07, 2011
Accession Number
ADA560081

Entities

People

  • Boaz Golany
  • Michal Penn
  • Moshe Kress
  • Uriel G. Rothblum

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Algorithms
  • Case Studies
  • Computer Programming
  • Computers
  • Consistency
  • Convex Programming
  • Counterterrorism
  • Engineering
  • Improvised Explosive Devices
  • Investments
  • Normal Distribution
  • Numerical Analysis
  • Operating Systems
  • Operations Research
  • Optimization
  • Perturbations
  • Time Intervals

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Economics
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies