The fighter problem: optimal allocation of a discrete commodity

DOI10.1239/AAP/1300198515zbMATH Open1250.90106arXiv1107.5066OpenAlexW2162255256MaRDI QIDQ2996572FDOQ2996572

Authors: Jay Bartroff, Ester Samuel-Cahn 

Publication date: 3 May 2011

Published in: Advances in Applied Probability (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The Fighter problem with discrete ammunition is studied. An aircraft (fighter) equipped with $n$ anti-aircraft missiles is intercepted by enemy airplanes, the appearance of which follows a homogeneous Poisson process with known intensity. If $j$ of the $n$ missiles are spent at an encounter they destroy an enemy plane with probability $a(j)$, where $a(0)=0$ and $a(j)$ is a known, strictly increasing concave sequence, e.g., $a(j)=1-q^j,;,0<q<1$. If the enemy is not destroyed, the enemy shoots the fighter down with known probability $1-u$, where $0leule1$. The goal of the fighter is to shoot down as many enemy airplanes as possible during a given time period $[0,T]$. Let $K(n,t)$ be the smallest optimal number of missiles to be used at a present encounter, when the fighter has flying time $t$ remaining and $n$ missiles remaining. Three seemingly obvious properties of $K(n,t)$ have been conjectured: [A] The closer to the destination, the more of the $n$ missiles one should use, [B] the more missiles one has, the more one should use, and [C] the more missiles one has, the more one should save for possible future encounters. We show that [C] holds for all $0leule1$, that [A] and [B] hold for the "Invincible Fighter" ($u=1$), and that [A] holds but [B] fails for the "Frail Fighter" ($u=0$), the latter through a surprising counterexample.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1107.5066

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zbMATH Keywords

concavityfighter problemcontinuous ammunitiondiscrete ammunitionoptimal allocation problem

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Dynamic programming (90C39) Markov and semi-Markov decision processes (90C40)

Cites Work

• Title not available (Why is that?)
• On optimal allocation of a continuous resource using an iterative approach and total positivity
• A proof of the Bomber problem's spend-it-all conjecture
• Some results on the bomber problem
• The Spend-It-All Region and Small Time Results for the Continuous Bomber Problem
• On some problems in operations research
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• On a problem of ammunition rationing

Cited In (6)

• Concavity and monotonicity properties in a groundwater management model
• On optimal allocation of a continuous resource using an iterative approach and total positivity
• On Optimal Ammunition Usage When Hunting Fleeing Targets
• Generalized Bomber and Fighter Problems: Offline Optimal Allocation of a Discrete Asset
• ABCs of the bomber problem and its relatives
• 41 counterexamples to property (B) of the discrete time bomber problem

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