Terminal Velocity Maximization of Air-to-Air Missiles in Agile Turn Phase

Abstract

Terminal velocity maximization of air-to-air agile missiles during agile turn phase is studied. It is important to make sure that agile missiles have enough velocity after agile turn stage in order to impact the target. The agile turn is operated during the boost phase. Thus, the agile turn problem is formulated as terminal velocity maximization with given final time. Optimal solutions are obtained by two different methods, pseudospectral method and parameterized costate optimization method. The parameterized costate optimization method is a part of shooting method of indirect method which is proposed to verify the solutions obtained by pseudospectral method. At first, the basic missile model with constant axial acceleration is treated in the two dimensional yaw plane. After looking into the basic missile model, missile model with aerodynamic forces and thrust is analyzed.