Air-to-Air Targeting Algorithms for Turreted Gun Systems

Continuing development of airborne threats has increased risk for military rotorcraft. Development of air to air targeting algorithms for a stabilized turreted gun systems has not kept pace with technology and improvements are needed to be effective against aerial systems. Military helicopters use machine guns as offensive and defensive weapons against air and ground targets. However, they have challenges in targeting airborne targets where the target is moving rapidly in three directions. Targeting errors have many sources such as tracking errors, winds, turret pointing errors. New air to air targeting algorithm approaches need to account for errors such as these to increase the accuracy. We propose the development of air-to-air targeting algorithms for a turreted gun systems such as are found on the AH-64D helicopter to achieve air-to-air accuracies equivalent to current air-to-ground accuracies with graceful degradation as error increase.