Missile fuzing system

A fuzing system comprising:

• a system adapted to track and direct a missile towards a target, such system comprising:
• a seeker, gimballed with respect to the body of the missile, to produce a line of sight angle signal representative of a line of sight angle between the missile and the target;
• and a ranging system to produce a range signal representative of a range between the target and the missile;
• and,
• a processor comprising:
• means, in response to the seeker and ranging system produced signals, for determining a detonation signal for the warhead:
• means, in response to the range signal, for producing a time-to-go signal, t.sub.go, where t.sub.go, is related to the range between the missile and the target divided by the rate of change in such range, such time-to-go signal representing the time remaining before the missile intercepts the target;
• means, in response to the range signal and the line of sight angle signal a miss distance signal representative of a predicted distance, normal to the line of sight, at the time remaining before the missile intercepts the target;
• means for producing a fragment velocity signal representative of the velocity of fragments of the warhead after such warhead receives a detonation signal;
• and
• means for producing the detonation signal in response to the miss distance signal and the fragment velocity signal;
• and
• wherein the missile seeker is gimballed with respect to the body of the missile at a different location in the missile from the warhead, and wherein the processor, in response to signals representative of the gimballed position of the seeker and data representative of the difference in location between the seeker and the warhead, provides the miss distance signal.

A fuzing system comprising:

• a system adapted to track and direct a missile having a warhead towards a target, such system comprising:
• a seeker means, gimballed with respect to the body of the missile, for producing a signal representative of the angular deviation between the target and the missile;
• and a ranging system means for producing a signal representative of a range between the target and the missile;
• and,
• a processor for determining, in response to the seeker means and ranging system means produced signals, a detonation signal for the warhead,
• wherein the missile includes instrumentation for measuring the acceleration and angular rotation of the missile and the angular rotation of the seeker relative to the body of the missile and means for producing signals representative of such measurements, and wherein such signals are fed to the processor, such processor including such signals in estimating the miss distance:
• and
• wherein data is provided representative of the distance between the seeker and the warhead, and wherein the processor uses such data in generating the detonation signal.