Tactical and Strategic Missile Guidance, Fifth Edition

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The fifth edition of this best-selling title has three new chapters on important topics related to improving missile guidance performance and several important new concepts in the Appendix. The first new chapter presents several alternative ways of developing guidance laws numerically. These techniques can be used to derive more advanced guidance laws when the missile guidance system dynamics become very complex. An example is presented showing the advantages of a new advanced guidance law over more conventional guidance laws. Previous editions of the text have shown that intentional or unintentional spiraling maneuvers by a tactical ballistic missile can make it particularly difficult for pursuing missile to hit.

Estimating the target weave frequency is a critical component in advanced guidance laws that can counter these problems. The second new chapter presents a linear Kalman filter bank approach, originally introduced in the 1960s, for accurately estimating the target weave frequency and improving missile guidance system performance.

The engagement simulations presented in this text have previously been in one or two dimensions, to make it easier for the reader to understand the concepts presented in the text. The third new chapter provides examples of how to convert previous engagement simulation code to three dimensions in both the tactical and strategic worlds. A simplified mapping database is included with the text to demonstrate how geographical context can be provided in three dimensional strategic engagement simulations. One of the new concepts presented in the Appendix is the use of the discrete Fourier Transform for calculating the miss due to weaving targets.

With numerous new examples and easy-to-understand graphs and explanations, Tactical and Strategic Missile Guidance is a staple for any aerospace engineer's library. Companion software, in both Macintosh and PC versions, contains source code listings in FORTRAN, C, and MATLAB(R) languages. A detailed set of appendices not only serves as a user's guide but also explains how the text's FORTRAN source code can easily be converted to either C or MATLAB(R). The conversion technique plus detailed source code examples will be tools of interest to all engineers specializing in missile guidance or other aerospace-related fields.