An aircraft including a wing system, a plurality of control surfaces, a camera mounted on a camera pod, and a control system. The camera pod is configured to vary the orientation of the camera field of view only in yaw, relative to the aircraft, between a directly forward-looking orientation and a side-looking orientation. The control system controls the control surfaces such that they induce a significant aircraft yaw causing an identified target to be within the field of view of the camera with the camera in the directly forward-looking orientation.

Upon loss of a valid track of a remotely-sensed command guided vehicle, a delta actuator command including an orthogonal component orthogonal to the straight-line path is generated as a next sample of a time-based alternating signal. The time-based delta actuator command is added to the nominal actuator command, which is held upon loss of valid track, to maneuver the vehicle in first and second orthogonal directions back and forth across the straight-line path to increase an area of vehicle motion relative to the tracker's FOV. This increases the likelihood of recapture of the vehicle given vehicle motion after track is broken. The penalty is a reduction in energy efficiency. In certain embodiments, this is accomplished without modification to guidance system hardware or the existing tracking valid or invalid guidance algorithms.

Systems, devices, and methods for identifying a target aerial vehicle, deploying an interceptor aerial vehicle comprising at least one effector, maneuvering the interceptor aerial vehicle to a position to engage a target aerial vehicle, deploying the at least one effector to intercept the target aerial vehicle, and confirming that the target aerial vehicle has been intercepted.

A projectile is disclosed, having: a longitudinal axis, a steering assembly, a shell body, an attitude control system, a despin module, an electromagnetic receiver and/or emitter system, and a controller. The attitude control system includes a ram air inlet in selective open fluid communication with an exhaust assembly, which includes a plurality of exhaust outlets to selectively generate each of a plurality of thrust jets from a ram air inflow provided by the ram air inlet, each thrust jet being selectively controllable via the controller. The despin module is configured for selectively de-spinning the steering assembly with respect to the shell body about the longitudinal axis. The electromagnetic receiver and/or emitter system is configured for receiving and/or emitting electromagnetic energy, and for cooperating with the controller for operating the exhaust assembly to thereby selectively provide steering control moments. Systems and methods for steering the projectile are also disclosed.

A computer implemented method is provided for in-flight trajectory steering a vehicle by an optimal path to a destination. This includes incorporating physical constants; setting initial angle of attack (AoA) and initial AoA rate; incrementing flight AoA; measuring operation parameters; establishing a flight trajectory; calculating an optimal trajectory; comparing flight trajectories; and commanding flight control. The physical constants include gravity and atmospheric conditions. The flight AoA increments from the initial AoA and any prior increments. The operation parameters of the vehicle include pressure, velocity and flight path angle. The flight trajectory denotes the vehicle's path to its destination based on the operation parameters using the physical constants. The optimal trajectory is based on with altitude and velocity of the vehicle. The flight trajectory is compared to the optimal trajectory as a steering correction by altering the flight AoA. The vehicle's flight control executes the steering correction at the flight AoA.

A computer implemented method is provided for in-flight trajectory steering a vehicle by an optimal path to a destination. This includes incorporating physical constants; setting initial angle of attack (AoA) and initial AoA rate; incrementing flight AoA; measuring operation parameters; establishing a flight trajectory; calculating an optimal trajectory; comparing flight trajectories; and commanding flight control. The physical constants include gravity and atmospheric conditions. The flight AoA increments from the initial AoA and any prior increments. The operation parameters of the vehicle include pressure, velocity and flight path angle. The flight trajectory denotes the vehicle's path to its destination based on the operation parameters using the physical constants. The optimal trajectory is based on with altitude and velocity of the vehicle. The flight trajectory is compared to the optimal trajectory as a steering correction by altering the flight AoA. The vehicle's flight control executes the steering correction at the flight AoA.

The present invention relates to electro-optic guided missile systems and, in particular, it concerns systems and methods providing enhanced navigation capabilities based on ego-motion processing of seeker images. The missile system comprising: a missile; a seeker located at a nose portion of said missile, said seeker comprising an electro-optic imaging sensor; and a control arrangement for steering the missile along a flight path to a target, characterized in that the missile system further comprises: a navigation subsystem receiving images from said imaging sensor, said navigation subsystem being configured to: co-process a plurality of said images from said imaging sensor to derive ego-motion of said missile relative to a region viewed by said imaging sensor; derive from said ego-motion a calculated target direction from said missile to a target.

The present invention relates to electro-optic guided missile systems and, in particular, it concerns systems and methods providing enhanced navigation capabilities based on ego-motion processing of seeker images. The missile system comprising: a missile; a seeker located at a nose portion of said missile, said seeker comprising an electro-optic imaging sensor; and a control arrangement for steering the missile along a flight path to a target, characterized in that the missile system further comprises: a navigation subsystem receiving images from said imaging sensor, said navigation subsystem being configured to: co-process a plurality of said images from said imaging sensor to derive ego-motion of said missile relative to a region viewed by said imaging sensor; derive from said ego-motion a calculated target direction from said missile to a target.

An aircraft including a wing system, a plurality of control surfaces, a camera mounted on a camera pod, and a control system. The camera pod is configured to vary the orientation of the camera field of view only in yaw, relative to the aircraft, between a directly forward-looking orientation and a side-looking orientation. The control system controls the control surfaces such that they induce a significant aircraft yaw causing an identified target to be within the field of view of the camera with the camera in the directly forward-looking orientation.

An aircraft including a wing system, a plurality of control surfaces, a camera mounted on a camera pod, and a control system. The camera pod is configured to vary the orientation of the camera field of view only in yaw, relative to the aircraft, between a directly forward-looking orientation and a side-looking orientation. The control system controls the control surfaces such that they induce a significant aircraft yaw causing an identified target to be within the field of view of the camera with the camera in the directly forward-looking orientation.