PRECISION TARGETING USING GPS/INERTIAL-AIDED SENSORS

Precision weapons including miniature GPS/inertial guidance systems have become the mainstay of the DoD arsenal. These “smart” weapons can be delivered to target with unprecedented accuracy, without requiring expensive seekers for terminal guidance. GPSguided weapons are in development for gunlaunched, air-to-surface and even mortar munitions. In order for these precision weapons to be effectively deployed, the precise target coordinates must be included in the call-for-fire. Historically, sensors have relied on georegistration techniques using ground truth to derive target coordinates. This method is time consuming and can be unreliable in poor visibility conditions when ground reference data is hard to observe. Under contract to the US Navy, NAVSYS has developed the capability to determine precise target coordinates without relying on ground truth by using GPS/inertial-aided sensors. In this paper, this “smart sensor” technology is described and test data taken in the field is presented that demonstrates the performance of the high accuracy GPS/inertial alignment algorithms and sensor calibration performance.