Two Uses of the Diffused-Target Concept in Aerial Target Analysis

In target analysis, events of interest frequently depend on miss distance in such a way that the event becomes increasingly likely with decreasing miss distance. The most obvious example of such an event is killing the target. In certain cases it is possible to express the relation between miss distance and likelihood of the event in a functional form that leads to particularly simple mathematical expressions. The first section presents an outline of this theory. The second section applies this theory, usually called the diffused target concept, to the problem of studying the adequacy of a fuze under operational conditions. The third section uses the diffused target concept to study the effect of aiming bias on kill probability.