Semi-active rf target detection and proximity detonation based on angle-to-target
AssigneeRaytheon Company
InventorJeffrey C. Edwards
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A semi-active RF proximity fuze for warhead detonation is provided where external RADAR is available to illuminate the target. The fuze incorporates multiple receiving antennas with digital phase detection processing to distinguish the angle from which the target returns are received and uses that information to determine the detonation timing for the warhead. Detonation timing can be improved by processing the rate of change of the angle-to-target or processing the range and Doppler information to compensate for target velocity and distance.
Claims20
A projectile, comprising:
- a projectile adapted to pass in proximity to a target, said projectile including a plurality of RF antenna having at least one rear-facing lobe configured to receive pulsed radiation directly from an RF source and at least three forward-facing lobes configured to receive reflections of said pulsed radiation from the target;
- an explosive warhead;
- and
- a multi-channel receiver coupled to said plurality of RF antenna, each said channel configured to receive and condition the RF signal to feed an AD converter to produce a sequence of digital samples, and a digital signal processor configured to process a phase relationship between the digital samples from the three or more forward-facing lobes and the rear-facing lobe to generate a sequence of angle-to-target estimates and to process the angle-to-target estimates to issue a detonation command to detonate the explosive warhead.
A proximity fuze for a projectile, comprising:
- a plurality of RF antenna having at least one rear-facing lobe configured to receive pulsed radiation directly from an RF source and at least three forward-facing lobes configured to receive reflections of said pulsed radiation from the target;
- and
- a multi-channel receiver coupled to said plurality of RF antenna, each said channel configured to receive and condition the RF signal to feed an A/D converter to produce a sequence of digital samples, and a digital signal processor configured to process a phase relationship between the digital samples from the three or more forward-facing lobes and the rear-facing lobe to generate a sequence of angle-to-target estimates and to process the angle-to-target estimates to issue a detonation command to detonate the explosive warhead.
A method of proximity detonation of a projectile, comprising:
- receiving and conditioning an RF signal at each of at least one rear-facing lobe configured to receive pulsed radiation directly from an RF source and at least three forward-facing lobes configured to receive reflections of said pulsed radiation from a target;
- converting the RF signal to a sequence of digital samples;
- processing a phase relationship between the digital samples from the three or more forward-facing lobes and the rear-facing lobe to generate a sequence of angle-to-target estimates;
- and
- processing the angle-to-target estimates to issue a detonation command to detonate the explosive warhead.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.