Multi-Objective Cost Function for Mid-Course Target Assignment in Air-Defense Cooperative Guidance

Abstract

Air-defense systems are challenged by highly-dynamic attacks such as hypersonic vehicles and heterogeneous coordinated swarms. Cooperative guidance enables dynamic reactions of effectors in-flight to increase efficiency and effectiveness of the air-defense and better protect friendly assets. A major building block for cooperation is a continuous collaborative evaluation and adjustment of Weapon Target Assignments (WTAs). This increased autonomy requires informed decision routines. Therefore, this paper proposes a domain-informed multi-objective cost function for cooperative mid-course WTA. Instead of abstract and overly simple cost models, we systematically incorporated mission-relevant domain knowledge into the WTA optimization scheme. The cost structure accounts for effector dynamics with limited propulsion reserves, protected assets risk mitigation, and time-critical intercept feasibility based on predictive forward simulations. The resulting architecture is successfully tested through numerical evaluations across scenarios with both symmetric and asymmetric force compositions. It dynamically adapts to evolving threat scenarios and heterogeneous target sets. Real-time capability is positively assessed for applicability to embedded systems. The results contribute to the development of next-generation, cooperative air-defense architectures.