Integrated Fire Control/Weapon System Design and Evaluation for Internetted Applications

The integrated fire control/weapon system design is an important part of the general effort in integrated avionics, flight control, fire control, and weapon systems design to improve weapon effectiveness and aircraft survivability. The delivery accuracy can be improved through reducing the effects of significant error sources in targeting, fire control, and weapon systems. The increase in survivability results from the covert action and earlier disengagement provided by internetted operations. In this project, a thorough investigation of internetted fire control and weapon delivery designs is proposed from the system integration point of view. In Phase I, a baseline fire control/weapon delivery system simulation tool will be developed. Major error sources and their contributions to the overall error budget will be identified. Algorithms designed to reduce these errors within internetted environment will be developed including multisensor integration, data association, IMU alignment, trajectory shaping guidance. Advantages associated with internetting operation such as passive, cooperative fire control and enhanced reliability and flexibility will also be investigated. In Phase II and Phase III, the resulting algorithm will be further refined and perfected to support operational capability.