Missile defence system
AssigneeBritish Aerospace Public Limited Company
InventorsDavid Salkeld, John W. Schofield
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A missile defence system for guiding a sub-projectile to intercept and destroy a target includes a radar tracker to acquire and track the target, predictor means for determining the predicted track of the target, and a guided projectile for being guided onto a rear reciprocal track of the target. The guided projectile includes an optical tracker for acquiring and tracking the target at relatively small distances and a sub-projectile for being guided onto the line of sight connecting the optical tracker and the target thereby to intercept and destroy the target.
Claims12
A missile defence system for intercepting a target, said system comprising:
- a radar tracker for tracking a target at relatively large distances;
- target track predictor means for receiving data output by said radar tracker to determine a predicted track of said target;
- a guided projectile including at least one sub-projectile launchable from said projectile and optical tracker means for tracking the target at relatively small distances;
- projectile guidance processing means for processing the output of said target track predictor means and for issuing guidance commands to guide the projectile onto a near reciprocal track;
- and
- sub-projectile guidance processing means for processing the output of said optical tracker means and for issuing guidance commands to guide the sub-projectile to intercept said target.
A missile defence system for guiding a missile to intercept a target, said system comprising:
- means for tracking said target;
- a projectile for being guided to intercept said target;
- a guidance computer for providing guidance data for said projectile;
- a radar tracker for tracking said projectile and for outputing to said guidance computer, data representing the location of said projectile relative to said radar tracker in space axes and for transmitting said projectile guidance data and for receiving from said projectile control data;
- a directional antenna means provided on said projectile for receiving guidance data and for transmitting control data;
- and
- means, associated with said directional antenna means, for generating control data representing the direction of arrival of said guidance data from said radar tracker relative to the body axes of said projectile and for transmitting said control data to said radar tracker, whereby said guidance computer is supplied with control data representing the heading and attitude of said projectile.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.