AIMING POINT GUIDANCE LAW FOR AIR-TO-AIR MISSILES

A new aiming point guidance (APG) law is presented which generates a m issile turn rate command proportional to the heading error, that is de fined as the angle between the current missile heading and predicted a iming point. The target tinder consideration is assumed to be manoeuvr ing with constant longitudinal and/or lateral accelerations, and the m issile dynamics are modelled as an acceleration-limited first-order la g point mass. The aiming point is calculated based on current intercep t geometry and target velocity and position. Time-to-go, a key factor for successful interception, is estimated by a time-to-go predictor. W ith the heading error defined as stated above, the guidance law can gu ide the missile into the collision course in the early stage of the en gagement. As a consequence, the later part of the missile trajectory t ends to be a straight line, provided that the target maintains its cur rent status. The performance of the proposed APG is evaluated by simul ation and is compared with the proportional navigation guidance (PNG) and Kim's prediction guidance (PRG) law (Kim 1985). Numerical simulati ons show that APG is superior to PNG and PRG in both intercept time an d miss distance.