Hard and Soft Defense Against a Sequence of Aerial Threats

Michael Atkinson () and Moshe Kress ()
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Michael Atkinson: Operations Research Department, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California 93943
Moshe Kress: Operations Research Department, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California 93943

Operations Research, 2025, vol. 73, issue 4, 1767-1784

Abstract: The increasing prevalence of missiles and drones (hereafter referred to as threats) in attacks by both state and nonstate actors highlights the critical need for a robust defense system to counter these threats. We develop a combat model for the engagement between a Blue defender who is subject to repeated attacks by Red threats. The defender employs two types of defenses: hard interceptors, such as antiballistic missiles, and soft measures, such as directed-energy weapons and jamming. Employing strategies for these two types of defensive options are evaluated by a two-dimensional measure of effectiveness: expected number of leaking Red threats and the expected expenditure of hard interceptors. We define efficient frontiers on this two-dimensional space and identify defense strategies that compose these frontiers.

Keywords: Security; and; Defense; firing theory; combat model; salvos; missile defense; soft measures; interceptors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:oropre:v:73:y:2025:i:4:p:1767-1784

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