Method for operating a fire-control system based on a heuristic algorithm

#1. Field of the Invention

#A method for operating a fire-control system based on a HEURISTIC ALGORITHM.

#The invention relates to a method for operating a fire-control system suitable for at least substantially simultaneously engaging a plurality of threats, employing sensors and weapons, whereby, on the basis of an environment of the fire control system and on the basis of a selected suitability criterion, one planning is selected from a pool of for instance heuristically determined feasible plannings in order to engage the threats.

#The invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to FIG. 1, which schematically represents a fire-control system to which the method can be applied.

#FIG. 1 schematically represents a fire-control system 1, for instance placed on a ship, the primary task of which is to defend the ship or a nearby valuable object against threats emerging from an environment 2. Fire-control system 1 is thereto provided with weapons 3, sensors 4 and a man-machine-interface (MMI) 5, which enables the manual detection of threats, for instance on a radar display and by means of which weapons 3 and sensors 4 can be assigned to engage these threats in accordance with a selected planning. In the event of complex attacks in a multi-threat environment, it may be difficult to select an optimal planning. Besides, the selection depends on many other factors, for instance an internal environment 6, which indicates the weapons 3 and sensors 4 that are still operational, the ammunition available to the various weapons, and the required residual quantity of ammunition per weapon. An other relevant factor is the nature of the ship's mission, for instance survival of the own ship or protection of a nearby valuable object, during war or in peace time. To enable a well-considered decision within the time available, one could automatically determine, on the basis of a number of heuristic rules, a number of feasible plannings to be stored in a pool 7 from which the commander can select in manual mode a planning that seems optimal to him. In this case he may apply a suitability criterion 8 which, taking account of the mission specified via MMI 5, the environment 2, the internal environment 6 and other criteria, such as the required residual quantity of ammunition for countering a possible subsequent attack, can assign a rating to each planning in pool 7. Another possibility is to draw plannings from a superpool 9 of feasible plannings which comprises at least one planning for each conceivable threat. Under application of suitability criterion 8 and the other above-mentioned criteria, pool 7 can be replenished with plannings from superpool 9, each of which has been given a high rating.

#A planning from the pool of feasible plannings 7 is composed of actions, each consisting of a point in time, a selected threat, a selected weapon, a selected sensor and a selected firing doctrine, which is the number of rounds fired and the interval between firing the rounds. For each threat at least one feasible planning exists that, under application of the suitability criterion 8, yields an optimal result. In addition, there are feasible plannings that produce a suboptimal result. Finally, there are plannings that, at least for this threat, produce an unsatisfactory result.

#Once selected, a planning continues to apply until altered circumstances in environment 2, e.g. the elimination of a target, or in internal environment 6, e.g. a weapon failure or a commander action through MMI 5, necessitate a change of planning.