COMPUTATIONAL METHODS FOR DECOY DISCRIMINATION AND OPTIMAL TARGETING IN BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE

This dissertation addresses the problem of the optimum attention of a defensive sites interceptor weapons to an incoming cloud consisting of a mixture of warheads and decoys. The object of the defense is to allocate the defensive interceptors to minimize the expected number of warheads that survive the defensive targeting. Optimum targeting policies are derived for the defense as a function of various problem parameters including: a measurement information available to the defense, decoy quality, and defensive interceptor lethality and inventory level. The inverse problem is also considered; i.e., given certain weight or volume constraints what is the best tradeoff between decoy quality and quantity to maximize the minimum expected number of surviving re-entry warheads. Various numerical sensitivities are examined, and approximate scaling laws are developed.