Title: Team Optimal Signaling Strategies in Air Combat

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

Status: IEEE Transaction on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Part A - Systems and Humans (to appear)

Keywords: Air combat, data link, decision analysis, impreciseness, team optimal.

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, only 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 team 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 about incomplete preference statements is incorporated into the model by utilizing an interval approach. We also describe the implementation of the prioritization model in a Matlab-based software that is designed for simulating the evolution of team members' information and trajectories in an air combat game.