The cruise missile has changed the face of warfare. Western air arms send salvos of them into contested airspace, along with low-observable aircraft, to deal with air defenses and high value targets on the first night of a conflict. Yet the planning process associated with deploying such weapons can be a laborious one. Cruise missile strikes can take as long to plan as the aircraft missions that launch them, making them tricky to use against fleeting or time-sensitive targets. European missile manufacturer MBDA is exploring technologies to speed up that planning process, with the goal of having them ready to use on the next generation of standoff weapons emerging over the next decade. Through its Anglo-French Materials and Components for Missile Innovation and Technology Partnership (MCM-ITP), MBDA and several partner companies have been testing simulation and algorithms that could help to automate the planning process and use a probabilistic model to judge the missile's chances of success.
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