Investigating an iterative method to compute firing angles for artillery projectiles

This paper investigates a method that employs iterative algorithms and six-degrees of freedom trajectory simulation to determine firing angles for unguided artillery weapons. Compared with the classical firing table lookup method, the iterative method is more advantageous that it allows nonstandard conditions to be included in the trajectory simulation. However, the iterative method requires an efficient algorithm to minimize the computation time. In this study, four algorithms were investigated and applied to the 155-mm M107 projectile as a case study. The algorithms were tested with 500 random cases. The average number of iterations and computation time were presented and discussed.