Strategies for Target Defense from a Fast Attacker

This paper considers a problem of target protection where an attacker tries to reach a target. A defender protects the target by placing itself between the attacker and the target in order to deny capture of the target by the attacker. The interesting case where the attacker is faster than the defender is considered. In such a case, the defender is unable to intercept the attacker due to a speed disadvantage, but it may be able reach the target before the attacker and reject the attacker. On the other hand, the attacker needs to strategically use its speed advantage in order to circumvent the defender, and its capture zone, in order to successfully reach the target. For the long range scenario, the time squired by the Attacker to maneuver around the Defender and head directly at the Target unimpeded is given. Using this time, bounds on initial conditions are given, which determine whether or not the Attacker is able to reach the Target.