Minimizing manoeuvre advantage requirements for a hit-to-kill interceptor

Abstract

Hit-to-kill requires extremely high intercept accuracies. Such performance places severe demands on interceptor manoeuvrability and flight control response time constant when engaging targets that are intentionally or unintentionally manoeuvring. A well-known guidance law for use against a manoeuvring target is augmented proportional navigation (APN). It is an optimal guidance law under various assumptions including a constant-lateral-acceleration target. It is also effective when used against other target manoeuvres provided that the lateral acceleration capabilities of the interceptor is significantly greater than the lateral acceleration capabilities of the target, and if the time constant of the interceptor flight control system is small. The advantage of using a new guidance algorithm for a hit-to-kill interceptor against a manoeuvring target in two dimensions is demonstrated in this paper. A large manoeuvre advantage is not required, and it is effective with time constants that would otherwise degrade the performance of APN. Results are based on a two-dimensional non-linear model with the target performing a weave manoeuvre. The new algorithm can achieve increased intercept accuracy under minimal manoeuvre advantage requirements over a wide range of initial conditions with reasonable levels of angle noise and target manoeuvre estimation error.