THE BEHAVIOR AND DESIGN OF MULTIPLACE CONFIGURED MINEFIELDS

A MULTIPLACE MINEFIELD DESIGN IS A SERIES OF MINEFIELD DESIGNS; THAT IS, A SERIES OF SPECIFICATIONS, ONE FOR EACH OF THE COMPONENT MINEFIELDS OF A MULTIPLACE MINEFIELD, OF THE CORRESPONDING MINEABLE AREA AND OF THE NUMBERS AND KINDS OF MINES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTIONS OF SETTINGS THAT ARE TO BE LAID IN IT. DESIGNING MULTIPLACE MINEFIELDS IS THE CORE OF MULTIPLACE MINEFIELD PLANNING, THE ENTIRE STOCKPILETO-TARGET-PLACE SEQUENCE FOR ASSEMBLING, TRANSPORTING, AND DELIVERING THE MINES THAT CONSTITUTE A MULTIPLACE MINEFIELD. GIVEN THE CONSTRAINTS ON THE KINDS AND QUANTITIES OF MINES AND ON THE DELIVERY EFFORT AVAILABLE, MULTIPLACE MINEFIELD DESIGN EMPLOYS THE MATHEMATICS APPROPRIATE FOR CONFIGURED SHIP-MINE INTERACTIONS AT EACH OF THE COMPONENT MINEFIELDS SO AS TO DETERMINE THE KINDS, QUANTITIES, AND SETTINGS OF MINES AT EACH COMPONENT MINEFIELD NEEDED TO MAXIMIZE OVERALL PENETRATION CONTROL AS QUANTIFIED BY THE ASSOCIATED FAMILY OF MULTIPLACE STOPPED PENETRATION PROBABILITY DENSITIES. MULTIPLACE MINEFIELD DESIGN, IN GENERAL, IS IN PART A NONLINEAR MATHEMATICAL PROGRAMMING PROBLEM THAT MUST INCLUDE DYNAMIC ALLOCATION OF CASUALTY TOLERANT AND OF COUNTERMEASURE RESOURCES AND IN PART A VERY DIFFICULT ANALYTICAL AND COMPUTATIONAL PROBLEM IN MULTIPLE-CLASS, MULTIPLESIGNATURE CONFIGURED MINEFIELD THEORY. DEVELOPING THE MULTIPLACE MINEFIELD THEORY NECESSARY TO DESIGN EFFECTIVE MULTIPLACE COMBAT MINE-FIELDS, TO DETERMINE STOCKPILE REQUIREMENTS, AND TO COMPARE REALISTICALLY THE ATTRIBUTES OF NEW MINE DESIGN CONCEPTS IS THE PRINCIPLE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED EFFORT.