True proportional navigation with maneuvering target

We analytically obtain the capture regions for the true proportional navigation (TPN) missile guidance law against an intelligently maneuvering target. Two versions of TPN are considered. The first is the original TPN which assumes the commanded lateral acceleration to be directly proportional to the line-of-sight (LOS) rate only, the proportionality factor being an arbitrary constant or dependent only on the initial closing velocity. The other, known as RTPN (realistic TPN), assumes the commanded lateral acceleration to be directly proportional to the LOS rate and also the current closing velocity. The target is assumed to maneuver in such a way as to increase the LOS rate and thus directly oppose the proportional navigation (PN) philosophy of annulling the LOS rate. A necessary and sufficient condition for capture is derived for the original TPN, and using it, the exact capture region is obtained. A sufficient condition for capture is derived for RTPN and is used to obtain its capture region partially. Some necessary conditions for capture are also derived for RTPN and are used to obtain an upper bound on its complete capture region. Using these conditions some important results on the existence of capture regions and a comparative study of capturability of TPN laws are also presented. >