Patent ID: 8185256

Claim:
A method for prioritizing threats to an aircraft comprising: providing threat attribute information including a threat engagement timeline and a threat lethality metric, the threat engagement timeline having a detection period during which a threat can detect the aircraft before the threat engages the aircraft, a tracking period following the detection period during which the threat can track the aircraft prior to engagement, a firing solution period following the tracking period during which the threat can compute a firing solution to engage the aircraft, and an engagement period during which the threat can engage the aircraft; obtaining a threat track indication that indicates a threat is tracking the aircraft; determining a historical position estimate of the aircraft at which the threat track began and a time estimate that the threat track began; determining a time period during which the threat track has been possible according to said detection period of the attribute information; determining a time to engagement estimate based on said threat engagement timeline of the threat attribute information and on the time period determined by said determining a time period determined by said determining a time to engagement; calculating a priority value for the threat based on the time to engagement and the threat lethality metric; and outputting a prioritized threat list including the priority value calculated for the threat, the prioritized threat list including the threat in a position indicating priority compared to other threats on the threat list.