Weapon-target assignment in multi-launcher system based on improved integer field particle swarm optimization algorithm

Weapon-target assignment (WTA) is a classic hard NP problem in military operation research, as its nonlinear integer programming model includes a variety of constraints, and its solution is complex and time-consuming. An improved particle swarm optimization algorithm was used to solve WTA problem. First, a particle decoding scheme and a sufficiency function were proposed for WTA optimization assignment model to solve the problem of integer field initialization. Then, a particle similarity function was used to redefine the velocity and distance concepts in the algorithm. A particle velocity update method and a particle optimization adjust operation plan were proposed to improve the iterative efficiency and optimization ability. Simulation results show that the algorithm is quick and effective, especially for solving real-time WTA problem with large particle group.