Autonomous Flight Termination for Use in Submarine Launched Missile Applications

Traditional flight termination systems (FTS) rely on a man-in-the-loop to monitor vehicle flight path and related vehicle trajectory performance parameters based on multiple radar tracking sources along with sensory data sent from onboard the vehicle via telemetry. An autonomous flight safety system (AFSS) brings the decision process onboard the vehicle via digital high-speed processing of positional data coming from onboard sensors, such as global positioning system (GPS), Optical (star or sun trackers), laser, and/or inertial measurement system (IMU) sensors. The sensor type is flexible in the architecture, but may require a software adjustment for the sensors position, velocity, and time (PVT) transmission formats. The Range Safety (RS) preprogrammed flight path and keep-out areas, along with flight deviation allowances, and related safety rules are uploaded to the AFSS prior to launch and stored in protective computer memory. The AFSS continuously determines the instantaneous impact point (IIP) of the vehicle based on real-time navigation data obtained from the onboard sensors. Current AFSS have been primarily designed for pad-launched systems; however, submarine-launched missiles present some unique issues that must be considered when leveraging this existing technology.