Formation-optimizing algorithm for large-scale air combat

Formation optimization is an important tactic in large-scale air combats. However, there is no proper standard for evaluating the formation performance. A formation target function is proposed as the evaluation standard based on the market mechanism in target allocation. To verify the effectiveness of this evaluation standard, the adaptive genetic algorithm is applied to the formation optimization. Therein, the hierarchical structure method is used to encode and decode the formation in the large-scale air combat. Next, the fitness function is constructed by using the formation target function. Finally, the effectiveness of the formation optimization algorithm is illustrated by three scenarios.