Missile and Sector Allocation for a Naval Task Group
Seminar by
Orhan Karasakal
Turkish Naval Forces
A naval task group (TG) is a collection of naval combatants and auxiliaries that are grouped together for the accomplishment of one or more missions. In this talk, we present two interrelated problems for a naval task group.
The first problem, missile allocation problem (MAP) can be defined as the optimal allocation of a set of surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) of a naval task group to a set of attacking air targets. MAP is a new treatment of an emerging problem fostered by the rapid increase in the capabilities of anti-ship missiles (ASMs), the different levels of air defense capabilities of the warships against the ASM threat, and new technology that enables a fully coordinated and collective defense. In addition to allocating SAMs to ASMs, MAP also schedules launching of SAM rounds according to shoot-look- shoot engagement policy or its variations, considering multiple SAM systems and ASM types. MAP can be used for air defense planning under a given scenario. As thorough scenario analysis would require repetitive use of MAP, we propose efficient heuristic procedures for solving the problem.
In the second problem, we address the sector allocation for a naval TG. Ships forming a TG are located in predefined sectors. We define determination of ship sector locations to provide a robust air defense formation as the sector allocation problem (SAP). A robust formation is one that is very effective against a variety of attack scenarios but not necessarily the most effective against any scenario. We propose a 0- 1 integer linear programming formulation for SAP. The model takes the size and the direction of threat into account as well as the defensive weapons of the naval TG by utilizing MAP solutions. We develop tight lower and upper bounds by incorporating some valid inequalities and use a branch and bound algorithm to exactly solve SAP.
Short Bio:
Dr. Karasakal is associate professor and Director of Scientific Decision Support Division at the Turkish Naval Forces Command HQs. He holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Middle East Technical University, an M.S. in Operations Research from the Naval Postgraduate School and a bachelor’s degree from the Turkish Naval Academy. He spent a year at the Operational Research Division of the Canadian Department of National Defence as a defense science fellow. Dr. Karasakal’s research focuses on military applications of operations research, with particular emphasis on air defense, base location, vehicle routing, sortie optimization, force structure and concept analysis.
