INTELLIGENT MISSILE SEEKER

A NOVEL CONCEPT OF A MINIATURIZED, RUGGED, PERMANENTLY ALIGNED, ALL-SOLID-STATE SPECTROMETER SENSOR IS PROPOSED FOR A MISSILE SEEKER. A SET CONTAINING TWO OR THREE SUCH SENSORS CAN RESOLVE THE COMPLETE UV THROUGH IR SPECTRUM OF A SOURCE IN THE FIELD-OF-VIEW. IT IS INTENDED TO DEMONSTRATE THAT THIS SPECTRUM WHEN PROCESSED VIA SPECTRAL-DOMAIN ALGORITHMS CAN PRODUCE A COUNTERMEASURE-IMMUNE MISSILE SEEKER WITH A TARGET RECOGNITION/DECOY REJECTION CAPABILITIES. THE ALGORITHM IS BASED ON A STATISTICAL PATTERN MATCHING APPROACH, USING MEMORY STORED SPECTRA OF DECOYS AND TARGETS, POSSIBLY AUGMENTED BY A HEURISTIC KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM. POWERFUL DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING OR A NEURAL NETWORK PROCESSOR PROVIES THE SPEED REQUIRED FOR A REAL-TIME SYSTEM. THE APPROACH RELIES ON MATURE TECHNOLOGY MAKING THIS A LOW-RISK, HIGH-PAYOFF PROJECT. THE PRIMARY EMPHASIS IS ON THE SPECTROMETER SENSOR DEVELOPMENT WITH A SECONDARY EMPHASIS ON THE ALGORITHM AND PROCESSOR ARCHITECTURE. THE OJECTIVES OF PHASE I ARE TO DEVELOP A LIST OF PERFORMANCE AND OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS, TO CONDUCT A TOP LEVEL CONCEPTUAL DESIGN, AND TO PREPARE A HARDWARE/SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR PHASE II. IN PHASE II A BREADBOARD DESIGN-VERIFICATION AND SOFTWARE-DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM WILL BE BUILT, FOLLOWED BY A LABORATORY PROTOTYPE FABRICATION FOR HARDWARE-IN-THE-LOOP TESTS.