초록

A methodology determines the offset distance between a threat missile plume and its hardbody during boost phase to aid in guiding a kinetic weapon (KW) or interceptor missile to the threat missile hardbody using the KW infrared sensor of the interceptor missile in conjunction with a radar sensor.

대표청구항 ▼

What is claimed is: 1. A method for directing a weapon toward a boosting missile, said method comprising the steps of: sensing said boosting missile with an infrared sensor to thereby generate an infrared signature representing the boosting missile, said boosting missile having a hardbody; determin

What is claimed is: 1. A method for directing a weapon toward a boosting missile, said method comprising the steps of: sensing said boosting missile with an infrared sensor to thereby generate an infrared signature representing the boosting missile, said boosting missile having a hardbody; determining from said infrared signature the infrared centroid; illuminating said boosting missile with a radar system to thereby generate a radar cross-section representing the boosting missile; determining from said radar cross-section the radar cross-section of the hardbody of said boosting missile and the radar cross-section of the plume of said boosting missile; determining from said radar cross-section of the hardbody and the radar cross-section of the plume the radar cross-section centroids of each; processing said centroids to determine the location of said hardbody relative to said infrared centroid; and directing said weapon toward said hardbody of said boosting missile based on the location of said hardbody relative to said infrared centroid and said radar cross-section centroids. 2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said method further comprises the step of directing said weapon toward a location offset from said infrared centroid by the difference between said location of said hardbody relative to said location of said infrared centroid. 3. A method according to claim 1, comprising the initial step of mounting said infrared sensor on said weapon. 4. A method according to claim 1, wherein said step of processing said centroids to determine the location of said hardbody relative to said infrared centroid comprises the steps of: determining a line representing the boosting missile velocity vector; taking the difference between the location of said plume infrared centroid and the location of said plume radar cross-section centroid to establish a first difference vector; taking the difference between the location of said plume radar cross-section centroid and the location of said hardbody radar cross-section centroid to form a second difference vector; and vector summing said first and second difference vectors to establish the offset vector between the location of said hardbody radar cross-section centroid and the location of said plume infrared centroid.