VISUAL DETECTION OF VEHICULAR TARGETS FROM ATTACK AIRCRAFT

Attack aircraft on interdiction or deep support missions are faced with the problem of detecting their targets by visual means. Much has been written about the general theory of computing detection probabilities associated with visual detection and some experiments have been performed to get estimates of the detection probabilities for small tactical targets observed from the air. Applying the theory to a special case involving the detection of a stationary tank by a relatively high speed aircraft, a lateral range curve of detection probabilities is computed in this paper. This is compared with 1 lateral range curves from an experiment conducted by the University of Michigan in the field and over a terrain simulator and 2 lateral range curves constructed from data taken in an operational experiment conducted with USNPGS personnel in conjunction with a CDEC tactical exercise.