Some Results on the Bomber Problem

The problem of optimally allocating partially effective, defensive weapons against randomly arriving enemy aircraft so that a bomber maximizes its probability of reaching its designated target is considered in the usual continuous-time context, and in a discretetime context. The problem becomes that of determining the optimal number of missiles K(n,t) to use against an enemy aircraft encountered at time (distance) t away from the target when n is the number of remaining weapons (missiles) in the bomber's arsenal. Various questions associated with the properties of the function K are explored including the long-standing, unproven conjecture that it is a nondecreasing function of its first variable.