PROBABILITY OF KILL

Computer games, simulations, models, and operations research programs often require a
mechanism to determine statistically whether the engagement between a weapon and a target
resulted in a kill, or the probability of kill.
Statistical decisions are required when all of the variables that must be considered are not
incorporated into the model, similar to the actuarial methods used by insurance companies to
deal with large numbers of customers and huge numbers of variables. Likewise, military planners
rely on such calculations to determine the amount of weapons necessary to destroy an enemy
force.
The Probability of Kill (or Pk) is usually based on a uniform random number generator. This
algorithm creates a number between 0 and 1 that is approximately uniformly distributed in that
space. If the Pk of a weapon/target engagement is 30% (or 0.30), then every random number
generated that is less than 0.3 is considered a kill. Every number greater than 0.3 is considered a
"not kill". When used many times in a simulation, the average result will be that 30% of the
weapon/target engagements will be a kill and 70% will not be a kill.
This measure may also be used to express the accuracy of a weapon system. For example, if a
weapon is expected to hit a target nine times out of ten with a representative set of ten
engagements, one could say that this weapon has a Phit of 0.9. If the percentage of hits is nine
out of ten, but the probability of a kill with a hit is .5, then the P kbecomes .45 or 45%. This
reflects the fact that even modern warheads may not always destroy a target such as an aircraft,
missile or main battle tank.
Additional factors include probability of detection (P d), reliability of the targeting system (R sys),
and reliability of the weapon (Rw), to name a few. For example, if a missile operates
properly e.g. 90% of the time (assuming a good shot), the targeting system operates properly
85% of the time, and enemy targets are detected at %50, we can increase the accuracy of our Pk
estimation:
Pk = Phit * Pd * Rsys * Rw
For example:
Pk = 0.9 * 0.5 * 0.85 * 0.90 = 0.344
You can also specify a probability according to a class of targets, for example, it has been stated
that the SA-10 surface-to-air missile system has a Pk of 0.9 against highly maneuvering targets,
whereas its Pk against non-maneuvering targets is much higher.