Intelligent Software Agents for Automating EA-18 Combat Functions

The objective of the proposed work is to develop and demonstrate intelligent software agents for automating the functions of electronic warfare systems on the EA-18 Growler. We seek to achieve a level of EA-18 performance that exceeds that of the current EA-6B ICAP-III aircraft by moving beyond the selective reactive paradigm and into an adaptive paradigm. This vision will be achieved only by considering the EA-18 in the context of a broader airborne electronic attack (AEA) system of systems. Therefore, our approach is to develop agents to optimize the dynamic performance of the AEA system of systems through a two-part solution. First, we develop a mission planning support agent that seeks to create robust, flexible, and dynamically near-optimal mission plans. Second, we develop an architecture for implementing software agents by decomposing the tactical warfighting functions of the EA-18. Within this architecture, we use existing algorithms, soft computing, and heuristic methods to instantiate agents that automate each of these functions while seeking to optimize dynamic performance. The result is a highly effective capability that exceeds the performance of the ICAP-III baseline while shifting the role of the operator from systems manager to electronic battle manager.