Limiting factors in tactical target acquisition

H. W. Wessely

Expert InsightsPublished 1978

Maximum survivability in air-to-ground tactical operations is achieved if the attack aircraft continually flies at low altitude and high speed. However, this flight tactic increases the difficulty of finding targets because of the relatively short times available for search. This implies a relatively low probability of being able to convert to a first pass attack. Moreover, when relatively narrow field of view sensors such as present day FLIRs are used, there is a significant probability that the target will not be found at all if only a single pass over the target area is permitted. There is an urgent need for field experiments to determine realistic values of the acquisition probabilities associated with various attack scenarios and tactics.

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Wessely, H. W., Limiting factors in tactical target acquisition. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1978. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P5942.html.
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