Method and apparatus for fire control
AssigneeThe State of Israel, Atomic Energy Commission, Soreq Nuclear Research Center
InventorsSagie Tsadka, Ehud Azoulay, Gideon Bar-Tal
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Abstract
A method for the fire control of flat trajectory weapons, which comprises the steps of measuring the target range and cross wind velocity along the intended projectile trajectory prior to firing the weapon and, using the know ballistic equations of the projectile, determining the expected vertical and horizontal deflection of the projectile and adjusting the weapon sight to compensate for said deflections.
Claims11
Method for the fire control of flat trajectory weapons including a sight having an aiming point, said method comprising:
- generating at the firing position a laser beam having a repetition rate of not less than 1 Khz;
- receiving the beam reflected by a desired target;
- determining the target range by measuring the time lag between the generation of said laser beam and the reception of said reflected beam;
- determining the crosswind direction and crosswind velocity along the trajectory by receiving said reflected laser beam in two separate positions and measuring the intensity fluctuations of said beam in said two separate positions;
- determining, using the ballistic equations of the projectile, the expected vertical and horizontal deflection of the projectile;
- and
- adjusting the aiming point contained in the weapon sight to compensate for said deflections, either by providing the weapon shooter with sufficient information to adjust said aiming point or by automatically adjusting said aiming point.
Apparatus for the fire control of a flat trajectory weapon, by the adjustment of the aiming point contained in the gunsight of said weapon, said apparatus comprising:
- a diode pumped laser transmitter having a repetition rate of not less than 1 Khz for emitting a laser beam towards a target, said target reflecting said laser beam;
- a receiver, chosen from the group consisting of two spaced detectors and a multi-element single receiver, each with a field of view covering the desired target for receiving said reflected laser beam in two separate positions and outputting two signals;
- means for determining the range of the target, based on the time lag between the emission of the laser beam and the reception of said reflected laser beam;
- means for processing the signals outputted by said receiver and determining from said signals the direction and intensity of the average crosswind along the intended projectile trajectory;
- and
- means for determining, from said range and said receiver output signals, the data required for said adjustment of the aiming point contained in said gunsight of said weapon.
Method for the fire control of flat trajectory weapons including a gunsight having an aiming point, said method comprising measuring the target range and crosswind velocity along the intended projectile trajectory prior to firing the weapon;
- using known ballistic equations of the projectile for determining the expected vertical and horizontal deflection of the projectile and;
- adjusting the aiming point to compensate for said deflections, said method further including producing a laser beam by means of an Nd:YLF diode pumped laser with beam diameter less than 5 cm and narrow beam divergence less than 0.2 mrad;
- aiming at a distant target, of the diffusive type, and sending to said target ˜1000 laser beam pulses at a repetition rate of greater than 1 Khz;
- detecting the intensity of the laser beam reflected from the target with two spaced detectors, each detector having its own or joint collecting optics, and having a field of view covering the target larger than 0.2 mrad, and having a distance between the centers of their collecting optics whereby their apertures partially overlap;
- processing an analog output signal of each of said detectors by amplifying its signal, selecting the peak values of each signal, converting the analog to a digital signal, and inputting the digital signal into a computer means;
- saving two arrays of the peak values of each of said detectors;
- computing the average and normalized variance of each of said arrays;
- calculating and building the normalized time-lagged Cross-Correlation Function between the intensity values in said two arrays;
- calculating the cumulative differences between the values in the positive part of said Cross-Correlation Function to the negative part thereof, whereby the direction of the average crosswind along the path is defined by the sign of the result of said calculation;
- smoothening the signal fluctuations in each array of said values by performing running average of 3-6 values;
- and thereafter computing for each of said arrays the number of zero crossing points to calculate the intensity of the average crosswind along the path.
Apparatus for the fire control of a flat trajectory weapon by adjustment of an aiming point provided in a gunsight of said weapon, said apparatus comprising a laser beam transmitter;
- two spaced detectors each having a field of view covering a desired target, each of said detectors providing an output signal;
- means for determining the range of the target based on the time lag between the emission of a laser beam from said transmitter and the reception of the beam reflected from the target;
- means for processing the output signal of each detector and determining from said signals the direction and intensity of the average crosswind along an intended projectile trajectory;
- means for determining from said range and said output signals the required adjustment of said aiming point;
- and means for communicating data to a shooter for the required adjustment of the aiming point, said communicating means comprising means for displaying in an alpha numeric monitor, embedded in the field of view of the gunsight, the direction and the number of notches by which the aiming point is to be displaced.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.