Optimizing Systems and Scenarios

System designers and those who study tactics and operational scenarios are often faced with the problem of optimizing a particular outcome by adjusting a combination of conflicting parameters. Often this optimum is searched for by doing a direct computer simulation and trying all combinations of parameters which can easily result in lengthly computations. For example, if there are 10 parameters and 10 values for each parameter there are 10 billion possibilities. A second alternative, which is the main subject of this paper, is to use one of a variety of computerized optimization techniques to find an optimum set of parameters. This approach is computationally many orders of magnitude faster than the direct simulation method. Two examples are discussed using the Fletcher-Powell (F-P) optimization technique.