The salvo combat model provides a mathematical representation of anti-ship missile battles between modern warships.
[1] The salvo model describes the basic elements of modern missile combat in a very simple manner.
This is similar to how Lanchester's square law provides a simple model of modern gun combat.
Let symbol A represent the number of combat units (warships or other weapon platforms) in the Red force at the beginning of the battle.
Each ship has staying power w, which is the number of enemy missile hits required to put it out of action.
The salvo combat model calculates the number of ships lost on each side using the following pair of equations.
Each equation starts by calculating the total number of offensive missiles being launched by the attacker.
By comparison, bullets or shells in a gun battle are typically fired in large quantities.
The salvo model primarily represents naval missile battles, such as those that occurred during the Falklands War.
Offensive firepower represents anti-ship cruise missiles such as the Harpoon, the Exocet and the Styx.
A simplified version of the model was used to study alternative outcomes of the Charge of the Light Brigade by British cavalry against Russian cannon in 1854.
[12] Another study examined how many missiles would be required to achieve a desired probability of success when attacking several targets at once.