Optimal low-level pursuit and evasion

Extract

It is possible, and even probable, that the next generation of defensive missiles will use modern methods of optimal control of the interception trajectory. Miniaturised computing is becoming so readily available that it becomes feasible to compute the optimal trajectory to the interception point.

Consider a ground site, defended by a surface-to-air missile, which is being attacked by a low-level intruder aircraft. As soon as the intruder is attacked, by launching the defensive missile, the intruder attempts to avoid interception by using evasive tactics; the intruder becomes the evader and the defensive missile the pursuer. When both the pursuer and evader use optimal tactics, the one to achieve interception and the other to avoid it, the result becomes the outcome of a game of pursuit and evasion, as described by Isaacs in Reference 1.