Capurability analysis for arbitrarily high-speed maneuvering targets

Abstract

The capturability of an arbitrarily maneuvering target featuring speed superiority over an interceptor is analyzed for Augmented Pure Proportional Navigation (APPN) and Retro-Augmented Proportional Navigation (RAPN) guidance. This paper focuses on intercepting arbitrary maneuvers to study more general interception problems. A comparative analysis of the capture region between head-on interception related to APPN and head-pursuit interception related to RAPN is proposed. The results indicate that RAPN performs better than APPN in capturability. It is concluded that increasing the target velocity, which increases the velocity ratio, significantly weakens the capturability of the interceptor, and the average acceleration and relative distance affect the location of the capture region but not its size. The analysis is based on prior knowledge of the target maneuver, which inevitably leads to deviations from actual maneuvers in practical engagement, so a deviation analysis is implemented. The effective capture region shrinks as the absolute value of acceleration deviation increases, and the RAPN has a better deviation fault tolerance compared with the APPN. The results reveal that a larger relative distance can weaken the deviation fault tolerance, and the target velocity has opposite effects on head-on and head-pursuit interception.