General design trade-offs for a precise terminal guidance system

Practical design considerations,trade-offs and technology issues for precise terminal guidance systems were presented. Several major contributors to zero effort miss distance were discussed: seeker latencies caused by angular measure accuracy,seeker′s stochastic noise,missile response limitations of control system and limited acceleration capability. A linear time-varying (LTV) model of the terminal phase of an intercept between a homing missile and a highly maneuverable target was derived. Based on the LTV model,the miss distance sensitivity to every factor was analyzed by the adjoint method in state space and finite-time circle criterion. These factors were often ignored in the theoretical study,but in practice,they are the major restrictions on the terminal guidance performance. The analysis and simulation results provide the feasible theoretical basis for the design of a homing guidance system.