Search Theory and U-Boats in the Bay of Biscay

Threats to our nation’s resources and forces are becoming increasingly lethal and mobile. Therefore, our ability to locate and interdict these threats is more important than ever. Search theory is one tool that is vital to countering the increasing threat. This research presents a multi-agent simulation, built around the allied search for U-boats in the Bay of Biscay during World War II, which extends several classic search theory algorithms. Comparison of techniques is based on the effectiveness of finding high-valued, mobile assets. A JAVA-based multi-agent simulation model is designed, built and tested, and used to demonstrate the existence of differing emergent behaviors between search patterns currently used by the United States military.