Allocating Weapons to Target Complexes by Means of Nonlinear Programming

The paper presents a three-stage method of assigning weapons to targets and illustrates its application with a small sample problem. The method decomposes the general allocation problem into a set of targeting problems in the small and a targeting problem in the large. The former are solved by a sequential optimizing method that provides information for solving the latter by nonlinear programming. The discussion is not advanced and illustrates a basic feature of applied operations research: the combination of existing operational methods to achieve approximative solutions to complicated problems. The study may have some added interest because of its relation to problems of decentralized planning.