Flexible energy management kill vehicle for exo-atmospheric intercept

A flight vehicle comprising:

• a main body including a control unit;
• a multi-pulse divert system configured to provide acceleration of the flight vehicle in a desired direction;
• an inertial measurement unit (IMU) configured to measure an inertial line-of-sight (LOS) rate of the flight vehicle;
• an attitude control system configured to sustain the main body in a desired orientation, and to use the measured inertial LOS rate to determine a maneuver along a direction perpendicular to the LOS when needed to hit a target,
• a gimbal unit attached to the main body;
• and
• a sensor unit coupled to the gimbal unit and configured to track a target along a line of sight (LOS) of the sensor unit,
• wherein the multi-pulse divert system comprises a multi-pulse motor housed at least partially in the main body, and wherein the multi-pulse motor is controllable by the control unit.

A method comprising:

• using divert pulses from a multi-pulse divert system to effect in-flight course change of a flight vehicle by:
• initiating a first divert pulse of the multi-pulse divert system to extend a range of the flight vehicle, and remove navigation error;
• measuring an inertial line-of-sight (LOS) rate of the flight vehicle;
• using the measured inertial LOS rate to determine a maneuver along a direction perpendicular, to the LOS when needed to hit a target;
• initiating additional divert pulses to provide further error removal and to react to target updates;
• and
• initiating a final divert pulse prior to target intercept that continues through target intercept time.