RADOME EFFECT ON THE MISS DISTANCE OF A RADAR HOMING MISSILE

The warhead of a radar homing missile is covered by a radome. If its t hickness is not properly controlled, the miss distance increases becau se the direction of the wave front changes. The initial portion of thi s paper describes the definition of the radome error slope and the pro cess to incorporate this into the block diagram. The block diagram and the parameter nominal values are shown, then a stability analysis und er the condition of the system being linear is presented, and the meth od of covariance analysis is discussed. Simulation results are given f or three cases. The first is a comparison between the previously used third-order model and the newly adopted fifth-order model, where the l atter yields more rigorous results and is more suitable for this subje ct. The second is a parameter analysis in which relations of constant radome error slope during flight versus miss distance are shown for va rious parameter changes. It is more practical to consider the radome e rror slope change as a sinusoidal function of flight time. The third s ection discusses the effect of stepped and sinusoidally changing radom e error slope on the miss distance. (C) 1998 Scripta Technica.