MULTI-SENSOR INTEGRATION FOR HIGH ALTITUDE BOMBING

The US Navy has identified a need to accurately attack ground targets with weapons delivered from advanced high-altitude aircraft. The high altitude bombing concept affords enhanced aircraft survivability since weapons can be released beyond the range of ground-based enemy air defenses even when operating near the target area. However, to ensure accurate guidance to the target area and ultimately a high probability-of-kill, such weapons are expected to be equipped with an inertial measurement unit (IMU), a GPS receiver, and possibly a narrow field-of-view seeker. Consequently, in order to realize a high-performance, cost effective system, it is anticipated that state-of-the-art sensor configurations and innovative IMU transfer alignment algorithms will be required to optimize the high-altitude bombing concept. The focus of this proposed research is to: (1) identify candidate state-of-the-art sensors for high-altitude aircraft/weapon systems, (2) postulate and evaluate innovative aircraft/weapon sensor configurations, and (3) conduct tradeoff analyses to characterize the feasibility of the candidate configurations. Detailed mathematical models will be formulated to characterize the error behavior of each sensor, and representative aircraft and weapon flight trajectories will be generated. Candidate configurations consisting of alternative aircraft/weapon sensors, aircraft-to-weapon transfer alignment procedures, and weapon midcourse guidance aiding schemes (e.g., GPS-aiding) will be postulated. The candidate configurations will be embedded into a computer simulation which will be employed to generate weapon system alignment error, navigation error, and seeker pointing error time-histories. Based on these projected errors, performance/risk/cost tradeoff analyses will be conducted for each candidate configuration. The most promising configurations will be selected for in-depth analyses to be conducted under the subsequent Phase II effort.