Missile Launch Research Articles

The numerical analysis of dynamics and control of a gyroscopic scanning system in an anti-aircraft missile launcher

The dynamics of a gyroscopic scanning system mounted on a mobile launcher, e.g. motor vehicle, was determined using a numerical analysis procedure. The system is designed to detect a maneuvering aerial target while the vehicle carrying the launcher moves over uneven terrain. Higher mobility of the system leads to a shorter interception time. The results of a computer simulation were displayed graphically.

An improved secret sharing algorithm

Secret sharing schemes are popularly used in mission-critical situations like the launch of missiles, opening of bank vaults, corporate secrets, start of war, key management and securing classified documents. In a (p,n) secret sharing scheme, any p –out-of-n participating members can reconstruct the original shared code but not less than p participating members can do so. In this paper, we present an improved algorithm for sharing secrets among shareholders in which the information to be shared is first compressed into a single integer number (code) and then shared among shareholders. The shareholders (p) must form a quorum to be able to reconstruct the original shared value. When a quorum is not formed, any combination of < p participants cannot reconstruct the shared code.

Missile Design: a Challenging Example for Control Education

An understanding of missile technology is nowadays a requisite for any (technical) officer of the armed forces. Control engineering is a key element for this understanding because of its direct relation to the performance of the missile. It emerges in the design of the flight control system and in the performance of the guidance law. This paper discusses three cases representing main issues which should be present in any military engineering curriculum: (1) vertical missile launch and thrust vector control, (2) optimal evader manoeuvres through exploiting weaknesses of the attacking missile in the guidance loop, and (3) the relationship between different control configurations and the limitations of the dynamic response of the missile.

North Korea's Place in the U.S. Presidency: Ethos and Moral Judgments

Introduction: A Relationship of Their OwnThe U.S. and North Korea share a unique relationship, and it is loaded with mutual distrust and strategic imperatives. Mutual distrust would drive them to dismiss each other, and yet the regional security imperatives keep them entangled. Pyongyang's 2006 underground test qualifies North Korea as a nuclear power, and its subsequent missile launches make the two nations' relationship ever more tenuous. Nuclear Pyongyang is a sore reminder of Washington's failure in its nonproliferation policy, while the intricacies of bilateral relations go beyond the conventional security realms. Pyongyang's human rights records make it more complicated.1 The U.S. is under mounting pressure from Japan on North Korean human security threats, and from the international community on the plight of refugees. In order to understand Washington's stance towards Pyongyang, this article situates the Korean Peninsula within the American presidency.A perspective entails positionality, which, in turn, reflects upon identity, interests and priorities.2 When observing Washington, D.C., from the sole focus on Northeast Asia, the evolution of North Korean problem can be puzzling.3 If we, however, reverse the directionality from Washington to the global affairs, Pyongyang ceases to be the sole problem, even if still one of many problems. The reversed positionality from the White House to the Korean Peninsula helps us weigh the multitude of competing agendas in the global setting. Had North Korea not been equipped with deadly weapons of mass destruction, it would have earned contempt or, at best, dismissal from the American leadership for its totalitarianism. This article, an inductive analysis of narratives, explains why the current nuclear impasse has emerged at the end of the Clinton administration and how the Bush administration chose to dismiss the Kim Jong Il regime as a legitimate counterpart.An Underexplored TerrainGiven the respective strengths of the four main international relations (IR) theories (e.g., realism, liberalism, institutionalism and constructivism), the human factor is often missing in foreign policy studies.4 This paper explores the probable causal association between the top leaders' belief systems and policy priorities by looking at the Clinton and Bush administrations' attitudes toward the Korean Peninsula. The rationality assumption in realist tradition does not permit the gray area where a top leader's worldviews interact with national agenda setting. Political leaders are assumed only to maximize national interests within the Hobbesian framework, and the murky reality entailing hard-to-quantify variables such as belief system is hardly factored in. The liberalist tradition, on the other hand, focuses on interests of actors leaving the room for ideological influence in the decision-making process. Institutionalism, however, falls short on considering individual human volition because actors are to play the already prescribed role within limited institutional framework. Noninstitutional considerations such as cultural affinity and shared worldviews are relegated to the periphery. Finally, constructivism vindicates the importance of identity politics, but the debates are mostly at the national (e.g., Muslim nation-state) and group level (e.g., ethnic politics). The top leaders' propensities are rarely an issue for its macro- and mezzo-units of analysis. This article looks into a less chartered IR territory by linking the top decision-makers' ethos to foreign policy behavior.5This paper is not an attempt to reduce national interests to elites' personal propensities. It instead tries to show an understudied dynamic in the foreign policy process. Students of diplomatic history often focus on the official records of national history by putting personal and unofficial narratives to their disadvantage. Doing it otherwise self-evidently risks trivializing the grandeur of national history making. …

Experimental and Numerical Investigations of Flow Confined in a Vertical Missile Launcher

Covers advancements in spacecraft and tactical and strategic missile systems, including subsystem design and application, mission design and analysis, materials and structures, developments in space sciences, space processing and manufacturing, space operations, and applications of space technologies to other fields.

The complexity analysis of a machining error propagation network and its application

There are some complicated interactions among different stages in multistage machining processes (MMPs), so it is important and necessary to explore the inherent mechanism of machining error propagation for improving product quality. With respect to this issue, a machining error propagation network (MEPN) of MMPs is proposed and its complexity is discussed. In order to establish this MEPN, the machining form feature (MFF) of the workpiece, machine tool, fixture, and cutting tool (i.e. machining element, ME) are defined as different network nodes. The associated relationship among different nodes is mapped by graph theory, according to the computer aided process planning (CAPP) information of the workpiece. Based on this, complex networks theory is introduced to analyse the characteristics of the established MEPN, and several measuring indices of error propagation at different nodes are proposed to quantify the interactions among different nodes. The synthesized propagation index (SPI) is then established to identify the key nodes and the SPI variation curve is used to quantify these key nodes' influences on the MEPN. Finally, a box part of a missile launcher is used to illustrate the proposed methods.

High-Voltage IGBT Switching Arrays

Under a Navy SBIR, Diversified Technologies, Inc. (DTI) will design and demonstrate scalable solid state switches in support of future U.S. Navy needs related to power supplies and inverters. One switch approach being developed consists of a massive series-parallel array of high-voltage insulated gate bipolar transistors that are switched synchronously in order to achieve high peak currents. DTI is evolving its technology in high-voltage switching to include very high peak currents. As an objective of the SBIR effort, DTI will utilize these high-power switches to build a power converter. From a practical viewpoint, high-voltage switches that can operate reliably at large currents have potential applications in missile launchers, high-power actuators, and radar power supplies. The massive series-parallel switch array approach has the potential to provide a compact, reliable, and effective switching solution to converting sufficient electrical energy to kinetic energy that could meet a variety of Navy applications. In this paper, DTI reviews current switch requirements and recent SBIR progress toward the goal of demonstrating massive series-parallel high-voltage switching that meets the Navy SBIR requirements.

PID control for active hydropneumatic suspension based on the feedback linearisation

Based on modelling and experimental validation of the hydropneumatic spring, a non-linear dynamic model is developed for the active hydropneumatic suspensions of missile launching vehicle. In order to fulfil the special requirements of mobile launching, the non-linear system is transformed into a linear one by means of feedback linearisation (FBL) according to the theory of differential geometry. Furthermore, a PID control approach is applied for the solution to the system of equations. It is indicated by the simulation results that the present non-linear controller combining the FBL with linear control algorithm is characterised with its fairly simple structure and good performance.

The Apache Longbow–Hellfire Missile Test at Yuma Proving Ground: Ecological Risk Assessment for Missile Firing

ABSTRACT A multiple stressor risk assessment was conducted at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, as a demonstration of the Military Ecological Risk Assessment Framework. The focus was a testing program at Cibola Range, which involved an Apache Longbow helicopter firing Hellfire missiles at moving targets, that is, M60-A1 tanks. This article describes the ecological risk assessment for the missile launch and detonation. The primary stressor associated with this activity was sound. Other minor stressors included the detonation impact, shrapnel, and fire. Exposure to desert mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus crooki) was quantified using the Army sound contour program BNOISE2, as well as distances from the explosion to deer. Few effects data were available from related studies. Exposure-response models for the characterization of effects consisted of human “disturbance” and hearing damage thresholds in units of C-weighted decibels (sound exposure level) and a distance-based No-Observed-Adverse-Effects Level for moose and cannonfire. The risk characterization used a weight-of-evidence approach and concluded that risk to mule deer behavior from the missile firing was likely for a negligible number of deer, but that no risk to mule deer abundance and reproduction is expected.

Efficient Employment of Non-Reactive Sensors

Abstract : We consider two types of non-reactive aerial sensors, which are subject to false-positive and false-negative errors. The sensors search for threat objects such as ballistic missile launchers or improvised explosive devices. The objects are located in a certain area of interest, which is divided into a grid of area-cells. The grid is defined such that each area-cell may contain at most one object. The objective of a sensor is to determine if a certain area-cell is likely or unlikely to contain an object. An area-cell is said to be determined if the searcher can ascertain with a given high probability these events. Since definitive identification of a threat object, and subsequent handling of that threat, are done by limited number of available ground combat units, the determination of an area-cell can help field commanders better allocate and direct these scarce resources. We develop two models, one for each type of sensor, that describe the search process and maximize the expected number of determined area-cells.

A History of the Kennedy Space Center (review)

Reviewed by: A History of the Kennedy Space Center Dwayne A. Day (bio) A History of the Kennedy Space Center. By Kenneth Lipartito, Orville R. Butler. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2007. Pp. xvi+478. $39.95. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has long had what is probably the most effective contract history program in the federal government, producing excellent first drafts of scholarship on various subjects that provide a solid foundation for those who follow. NASA has long given its contract historians access to documents and to its own officials, and virtually unlimited independence in the pursuit of the story. This book by Kenneth Lipartito and Orville Butler is a very good addition to this canon, telling of the development of the launch facility at Cape Canaveral, which has not only been vital to the nation’s space program, but has also had a major impact on the economy and social development of the state of Florida. Cape Canaveral was originally selected as a missile launch site by the air force for geographic reasons: a long stretch of empty ocean over which unmanned [End Page 813] missiles and rockets could fly, and fall. Because many rockets have to launch eastward in order to go around Earth, it was a natural site for launching NASA rockets into space. And the site could also be easily reached by water, so large rocket stages could be shipped there. NASA was assembled in 1958 out of pieces of several organizations, most importantly the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which had several field centers, including property in Virginia that had been used for missile launches. But it was clear that Cape Canaveral was the best choice for launching the agency’s rockets. The cape was already bustling with work on the American ballistic missile program, and NASA started by utilizing army and air force property and equipment. But the Apollo program significantly changed this dynamic. NASA acquired substantial amounts of property and began extensive construction in the swamps on Merritt Island. Soon the agency was building one of the largest enclosed structures there to house the mighty Saturn V rocket, the Vehicle Assembly Building. Workers faced a horrific mosquito problem, and they also had to contend with alligators and poisonous snakes, not to mention wild boars. After President Kennedy’s assassination the area was renamed Cape Kennedy, but eventually the name was changed back to Cape Canaveral, with NASA’s facility named the Kennedy Space Center, or KSC for short. The major input of cash and a skilled workforce to a relatively sleepy southern state had a lasting political impact, and one of Florida’s two senators even flew on a space shuttle when he was a congressman and NASA was pandering to any government official who could provide funding. Lipartito and Butler provide an excellent and comprehensive narrative account of NASA’s development of the area. Their opening chapter explains the myriad tasks involved in the preparation of the Saturn V rocket and Apollo spacecraft that carried Apollo 11 to the Moon, illustrating just what happens at a launch site like KSC. They also make the point that once the rocket lifts off, except for analyzing lessons learned from its preparation, the center’s job is done and everyone turns their full attention to the next launch. Kennedy is an example of technical “operations,” rather than science or research and development. The authors then recount the initial history of the area, air force and NASA occupancy of reclaimed swampland and former orange groves, and the substantial investments for Apollo. They also discuss the impact of all that construction and technical work on the local region, formerly comprised of sleepy fishing and farming communities. They cover the downturn in work—and the local economy—as the result of the end of the Apollo program, and then changes implemented for the space shuttle program, which required some new construction but largely relied on the existing Apollo infrastructure. Shuttle operations and the two tragic accidents, Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003, are examined. In both cases, NASA’s safety culture was identified as a culprit. However, although [End Page 814] the vehicles are maintained...

Weapons of Mass Destruction Transfers in Asia

Weapons of mass destruction are spreading in the Asian region. Five countries in the region have nuclear weapons while some more are in the process of acquiring such capabilities. Several of them either have or are in the process of acquiring capabilities in ballistic missiles, chemical and biological weapons or technologies. Vertical or horizontal transfers to some extent have helped these states to acquire WMD. A number of arms control and disarmament measures and regimes have come up from concerned individuals, social groups and institutions at the national, regional and global levels to address this issue. No major escalation control procedures, specifically in nuclear or missile launches, nor ‘de-targeting’ or ‘non-targeting’ agreements exist between Asian states. As risk factors increase in post September 11 world, different solutions were offered by several countries. While the western countries succeeded in evolving mechanisms between NATO and Warsaw Pact countries on nuclear CBMs, Asia still lacks any pan-regional monitoring agency to reflect on or curb WMD transfers.

U.S. Sanctions and Treasury Department Actions Against North Korea from 1955 to October 2007

OverviewThe history of U.S. sanctions against DPRK can be divided into six stages. The U.S. maintained fairly comprehensive economic sanctions from time of Korean War until 1989, occasionally increasing level of restriction during this period. Between 1989 and 1995 export of goods from U.S. commercial sector was permitted solely for purpose of meeting basic human needs. A more extensive easing of sanctions accompanied negotiation of Agreed Framework in 1994.In 2000, President Clinton eased many remaining trade and travel sanctions in response to DPRK's 1999 voluntary halt in missile testing. Licensing and trade regulations on most items for civilian use were significantly relaxed at this time.Although George W. Bush administration's approach to DPRK differed considerably from that of Clinton administration, no economic sanctions were re-imposed during President Bush's first term, although two North Korean companies were cited for WMD and missile proliferation (Rennack).In March 2005, North Korea declared that because the DPRK-U.S. dialogue on which missile test moratorium was based had been totally suspended when Bush administration took office in 2001, DPRK is bound to moratorium on missile launch at present. The DPRK then tested short range missiles first on May 1, 2005, and again on March 8, 2006. These short range tests, which did not break any international laws, garnered only limited public attention and condemnation from United States and international community, and no U.S. economic sanctions were re-imposed.Instead, in this fifth phase, U.S. administration focused on financial sanc- tions, including assets of individual companies suspected of proliferating weapons of mass destruction (WMD). On June 28, 2005, United States froze assets under U.S. jurisdiction of three DPRK firms that it accused of engaging in WMD proliferation, and in October 2005 froze assets of an additional eight firms (Rennack).In September 2005 U.S. Department of Treasury designated Banco Delta Asia as a bank of primary money laundry concern. This action, coupled with a December 2005 Treasury Department advisory warning financial institutions against transactions with DPRK, proved to have considerable impact on DPRK's ability to do business, and may have had a greater impact than sanctions that had been lifted during Clinton administration.In March 2006, U.S. Department of Treasury accused a Swiss company of doing business with one of sanctioned North Korean firms, and froze assets of Swiss company and its owner and banned U.S. entities from doing business with firm or owner. In April 2006 Department of Treasury issued an Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regulation banning U.S. persons from owning or leasing North Korean-flagged vessels.On July 5, 2006, DPRK test-launched an array of ballistic missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2. The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1695 ten days later, although, as with earlier short-range tests, long range test broke no international laws. Even with adoption of 1695, Bush Administration did not immediately re-impose sanctions lifted by Clinton administration in exchange for moratorium.North Korea tested a nuclear device on October 9, 2006, after which UN Security Council quickly adopted UN Resolution 1718 in response. In January 2007, Bush administration re-imposed some of sanctions lifted in Clinton era, and published a list of luxury items prohibited for export to DPRK, ushering in a sixth phase of sanctions.In Initial Actions agreement signed by Six Parties on February 13, 2007, United States agreed to begin process of removing designation of DPRK as a state sponsor of terrorism and advance process of terminating application of Trading with Enemy Act with respect to DPRK. …

Who is the Target of the US Anti-missile System Deployed in Eastern Europe?

The United States announced in January of 2007 that it would hold talks with Poland and the Czech Republic on the possible deployment of a missile defence system in their countries. The system's purpose would be to guard against potential missile attacks from Iran and the DPRK. The United States proposed deploying a 10-interceptor anti-missile launch site in Poland, an X-band radar installation in the Czech Republic and a radar station on edge of the Caucasus.1 US officials stressed that as these detection devices and interceptor missiles would be trained on ballistic missile launch sites in the Middle East, they would not prejudice Russia's military might in Europe.2 US Officials also made the point that the several hundred ballistic missiles in Russia's possession are far in excess of the minimum capacity necessary to overwhelm an Eastern European-located anti-missile system of just 10 interceptor missiles.3

EUの北朝鮮政策

In the context of the development of the EU's policy towards the Korean Peninsula and North East Asia the aim of this article is to analyze and evaluate the EU's policy towards the North Korea. While there has been extensive scholarly work undertaken on the role and impact of the EU in an international context there have been few studies on the relations between the EU and the North Korea-the ‘world's last unreformed Stalinist state’.The paper will focus on the way the EU is handling relations with the North, especially in light of the North's ballistic and nuclear missile developments and the absence of human rights in the country. In so doing it will be divided into four sections. First, it will highlight the explanations of certain EU actors in charge of the external relations with the North. Here the thoughts of DG personnel in the European Commission and the Committee on Foreign Affairs/Commission des affaires étrangères (AFET) in the European Parliament will be drawn upon. It will also touch upon the formation of the delegation for relations with the Korean Peninsula (DKOR).Secondly, a short history of the relations between the two will be undertaken by paying attention to the Korean Energy Development Organization (KEDO) and the EU's rapid establishment of diplomatic relations with the North. The change of the political context between the two, due to the missile launches in July and the nuclear test in October 2006, will also be examined.Thirdly, the ways in which the European Parliament is dealing with the issues in light of recent deterioration in relations across the Korean Peninsula are also commented upon.Fourthly, EU's policy towards the human rights in the North is analyzed. This includes the attention paid to the issue of ‘slave labor’ of the North Korean workers in Europe that is directly related with the EU's emphasis on human rights as part of its own d'être. This issue is also connected with the problem as to whether the products of the Kaesong industrial complex should be included in the EU-ROK Free Trade Agreement, which is presently under negotiation.As a result of the analyses of the EU's approach to the North, four interrelated problems are identified as problematic:First, the delay associated with decision-making in the EU. Second the problem emanating from the EU's non-participation at the ‘Six-Way Party Talks’. Third is the continuing lack of a common policy towards the North. Finally the problem incurred by the policies connected with the so called ‘Sunshine Policy’ that originated with South Korean President Kim Dae Jung in 1998.In conclusion, it can be said that since the present policy of the EU is to support the ‘Sunshine Policy’, it is becoming increasingly incompatible with the ideas and stipulations laid out in the Treaty of the European Union-in particular the terrible human rights conditions in the North. It also leads to a gross under-estimation of the military threat of the North by aligning itself with a pro-north player who has come under fire for granting unconditional aid to the North.

Вариации геомагнитного поля, сопутствовавшие стартам и полетам космических аппаратов

Вариации геомагнитного поля, сопутствовавшие стартам и полетам космических аппаратов

Interactive virtual evaluation for interface design

AbstractThis study proposes an interactive virtual evaluation (IVE) method for interface deign. By introducing the VR technology into a digital human model (DHM) system, the virtual prototype of a system interface can be created and tested in the digital world. Through the interactive mechanisms built in the VR software, the target users can therefore immerse into a virtual environment and have a real‐time interaction with the developed system mock‐ups. In the evaluation process, a customized digital human model within can present realistic motion and demonstrate the performance data that can be used for design evaluation and improvement. The proposed method was applied to the controller interface design of a missile launching vehicle. The concept of proactive design and evaluation can be realized under the condition of a high‐level interactive virtual environment with the limitation on tactile feedback as reported. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 17: 485–495, 2007.

A coupling model of water flows and gas flows in exhausted gas bubble on missile launched underwater

The gas and water flows during an underwater missile launch are numerically studied. For the gas flow, the explicit difference scheme of Non-oscillation and Non-free-parameter Dissipation (NND) is utilized to solve the Euler equations for compressible fluids in the body-fitted coordinates. For the water flow, the Hess-Smith method is employed to solve the Laplace equation for the velocity potential of irrotational water flows based on the potential theory and the boundary element method. The hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian formulation for the free boundary conditions is used to compute the changes of the free surface of the exhausted gas bubble in time stepping. On the free surface of the exhausted gas bubble, the matched conditions of both the normal velocities and pressures are satisfied. From the numerical simulation, it is found that the exhausted gas bubble grows more rapidly in the axial direction than in the radial direction and the bubble will shrink at its “neck” finally. Numerical results of the movement of the shock wave and the distribution of the Mach number and the gas pressure within the bubble were presented, which reveals that at some time, the gas flow in the Laval nozzle is subsonic and the gas pressure in the nozzle is very high. Influences of various initial missile velocities and chamber total pressures and water depths on both the time interval when the gas flow in the nozzle is subsonic and the peak of the gas pressure at the nozzle end were discussed. It was suggested that a reasonable adjustment of the chamber total pressure can improve the performance of the engine during the underwater launch of missiles.

International space launch notification and data exchange

As missile and space launch technology continue to proliferate around the world, nations will benefit from increased transparency to mitigate the potentially strategic consequences of early warning false alarms or misinterpretations. Previous false alarms and risk mitigation steps taken by the United States and the former Soviet Union and Russia are examined. Two pre-launch notification initiatives, the bilateral US/Russia Joint Data Exchange Center and the multilateral Hague Code of Conduct, offer means to further build confidence among spacefaring nations and enhance strategic stability. Pragmatic recommendations are offered to strengthen the emerging pre-launch notification regime.

Japanese Policy toward the North Korean Problem

North Korea became an urgent problem for Japan as a result of the 1994 nuclear crisis in North Korea, the 1998 missile launch over Japan and the 2003—4 nuclear crisis. At the historic Tokyo—Pyongyang summit in September 2002, both sides acknowledged the need to solve the security issues surrounding the Korean Peninsula through peaceful, multilateral efforts. However, the issue of North Korean abduction of Japanese citizens in earlier decades intensified Japanese sentiment against the North and this issue halted bilateral normalization talks. Japan has participated in six-party talks on the nuclear issue since 2004, but its distinct bilateral interests vis-à-vis North Korea, South Korea and the United States limit its influence in the multiparty engagement.