Defense before or after bomb-release-line

Two modes of defense attacking aircraft, Engagement BEFORE bomb-Release Line (BRL) and engagement AFTER BRL, are compared to determine which mode is best under certain types of criteria such as defense systems, target arrays, moral vulnerabilities, and durations of war. Research results reveal that Engagement BEFORE BRL is only justified when defenders have numerous forces available or if the length of combat is not going to be long. Research results also reveal that Defense AFTER BRL is best under the more common situations of moderate attrition rates and limited resources. The value of the defended targets is important to the problem only in several cases. The findings of this work bear on tradeoffs between parameters of defensive weapon systems under development, as well as on deployment and defense methods.