TOWARDS PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT FOR RADIO FUZES OF AA/C GUIDED MISSILES

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 M. Sc - M.T.0 , Cairo.

2 Ass. Prof - Guidance Department, M.T.C , Cairo.

Abstract

The fuze is the equipment of the missile which is responsible for initiating the warhead (W.H) explosion. The performance of the fuze or its efficiency is measured by the probability of target destruction which it can achieve. To improve a fuze performance means to increase the probability of target destruction by that fuze. This may be realized by increasing the degree of identity between the fuze activation zone (F.A.Z) and the target destruction zone (T.D.Z). The matching process may be either an actual one by using radio fuze(R.F) with variable antenna beam pattern(A.B.P) or virtual one by delaying the W.H initiation. This delay is calculated according to the real missile-target (M/T) encounter conditions. The present paper deals with the analysis of methods for R.F performance improvement in the cases of R.F with variable A.B.P and that with fixed A.B.P. The paper provides a mathematical model which is used to determine the relative velocity modulus necessary for determination of the W.H initiation optimum time instant . In the case of R.F with variable A.B.P , the model determines the optimum tilting angle of the antenna beam with respect to the missile axis. For R.F with fixed A.B.P, the model determines the corresponding delay time that do matching between the F.A.Z and the T.D.Z for a specific encounter conditions. The improved performance is calculated for some specific encounter conditions and the results are evaluated. A performance improvement factor (P.I.F) is defined which value may reach 83.7%.