Investigation of IR Survivability of Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle against Surface-to-Air Missiles

As the survivability of an aircraft in the battlefield becomes a critical issue, there is a growing need to improve the survivability of the aircraft. In this study, the survivability of an UCAV associated with plume IR signature was investigated. In order to analyze the survivability of the aircraft, the lock-on range and the lethal envelope, defined as the IR detection distance of the aircraft and the range of shooting down by the missile, respectively, were first introduced. Further, a method to calculate the lethal envelope for the scenario of surface-to-air missiles including the vertical plane was developed. The study confirmed that the red zone of an UCAV shows a substantial difference in the zone size as well as the characteristics in the upward and downward directions.

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