Title: Team Optimal Signaling Strategies in Air Combat

Authors: Kai Virtanen, Raimo P. Hämäläinen and Ville Mattila

Status: Proceedings of the IEEE Sytems, Man, and Cybernetics Conference, Tucson, Arizona, USA, October 7-10, 2001, CD, Session 61, pp. 2075-2080.

Keywords: Air combat, data link, decision analysis, incomplete information, optimization, signaling, team decision theory.

Modern fighter aircraft are equipped with a data communications system for relaying information within a group of friendly aircraft. During a many-versus-many air combat, the most important and essential information must be transmitted in order to achieve the best possible outcome of the combat. In this paper, we introduce a prioritization model for selecting optimal signaling strategies with respect to the overall goals of the friendly group. The model is based on a decision analytical value function which tries to capture the preferences of pilots. Uncertainty about the states of the aircraft as well as incomplete preference statements is incorporated into the model by utilizing an interval approach.