A modified crow search algorithm for the weapon-target assignment problem

Abstract

The Weapon-Target Assignment (WTA) problem is one of the most importantoptimization problems in military operation research. In the WTA problem, assetsof defense aim the best assignment of each weapon to target for decreasingexpected damage directed by the offense. In this paper, Modified Crow SearchAlgorithm (MCSA) is proposed to solve the WTA problem. In MCSA, a trialmechanism is used to improve the quality of solutions using parameter LIMIT. Ifthe solution is not improved after a predetermined number of iterations, thenMCSA starts with a new position in the search space. Experimental results on thedifferent sizes of the WTA problem instances show that MCSA outperforms CSAin all problem instances. Also, MCSA achieved better results for 11 out of 12problem instances compared with four state-of-the-art algorithms. The sourcecodes of MCSA for the WTA are publicly available athttp://www.3mrullah.com/MCSA.html