Swarm UAV Defeat Modelling through Lifetime Distribution Analysis

Abstract

The problem of defeating a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is of considerable importance to the modern warfighter. In recent studies high power radio frequency (HPRF) directed energy weapons (DEWs) have been shown to be suitable for this purpose. Hence there is a need to develop mathematical modelling frameworks to quantify HPRF DEW performance, especially when they are operating in a wideband or ultrawideband mode. Consequently, this paper introduces a novel mathematical model, based upon a new interpretation of UAV vulnerabilities to HPRF DEW, which permits performance assessment to be undertaken. The key to this is to view each UAV through its vulnerabilities to HPRF DEW energy at given frequencies and analyse its impact on the lifetime of each of the UAVs. This results in the definition of an appropriate stochastic process to count the number of UAVs still active in the swarm over a given time interval. Consequently, this permits the determination of minimum HPRF DEW power levels at given frequencies in order to guarantee likelihood of defeat of the swarm before it reaches the HPRF DEW source. Hence the results in this paper will provide a novel framework for determining the specifications of an HPRF DEW's required power distribution over target vulnerabilities to ensure a desired level of system performance.