Development status and trend of precision guidance technology

Summary

Precision-guided weapons are a modern weapon developed on the basis of conventional weapons. They have become the main means of physical killing in informational local warfare and have played an important role in the war. It refers to the ability to have a precise guidance system for extremely high accuracy, agile control systems and the ability to identify targets and destroy targets, with anti-jamming capability, low cost, high volume production and equipment, and A new weapon that is easy to use and maintain. It includes a variety of precision guided missiles, bombs, artillery shells, cruise missiles and remotely controlled unmanned aerial vehicles, mainly tactical missiles. Precision guidance technology is the key technology for precision guided weapons, supporting long-range, high-precision, all-weather and complex battlefield environments for precision guided weapons. Precision guidance technology is the guidance technology that uses the target area information obtained by itself or external input to detect, identify and track the target, and guide and control the missile/ammunition and other weapons to fly to the target. The focus of precision guidance technology research is to ensure that precision-guided weapons accurately target the target and even its critical parts in complex battlefield environments. Mainly TV guidance, infrared guidance, laser guidance, millimeter wave / microwave homing guidance, fiber guidance, maps preparation of guidance, inertial guidance, GPS guidance, program guidance and multi-mode or composite guidance technology. The research and development of precision guidance technology has been closely developed around the direction of anti-interference, high precision and intelligence. This article focuses on the principles, advantages and disadvantages, and development status and trends of various precision guidance technologies.

1.Development status of precision guidance technology

1.1 TV guidance

TV guidance is a technology that uses television to control and guide missiles to the target. There are two modes of guidance, one is television command guidance, and the other is television guidance. According to the wavelength of the target radiation or reflected light, television guidance can be divided into visible light television guidance and infrared television guidance.
The TV guidance system is currently being researched internationally and domestically, and is currently a useful auxiliary measure in the final guidance stage of various precision guided weapons in the past, or as an alternative to new weapons and existing weapons. One of the programs. The television (image) provides a more efficient and real-time target-precision guidance for accurate strikes by obtaining all-round information of the target area at one time. The advantage of TV guidance is that it uses the image information of the target to guide the missile. The target is difficult to conceal and has high guidance precision. The disadvantage is that the distance information cannot be obtained. The missile’s working distance is limited by the visibility of the atmosphere, and it is not suitable for all-weather work. . With the continuous development and improvement of hardware technology, image processing, especially real-time image processing, has been greatly and unprecedentedly developed.

1.2 Infrared guidance

Infrared rays have the characteristics that the human eye can’t observe, the anti-interference is good, the concealment is good, and the passive detection can be carried out in the mist and the night. The infrared radiation of the target and the background generally has obvious differences, so the infrared equipment can be used to reveal the camouflage. The goal, the resolution is very good, as early as during the First World War, infrared technology has been widely used in the military. After the Second World War, the brilliant achievements of modern physics have promoted the amazing development of infrared technology. High-performance new infrared detectors have also been introduced, and infrared instruments used directly for military purposes are also increasing. In the Gulf War, the multinational force headed by the United States relied on a large number of modern weapons and modern communications facilities to win the victory of the war with absolute advantage.
The missile is a powerful modern weapon that tracks the target and has a high hit rate. Many military targets, especially some moving targets, such as airplanes, rockets, tanks, warships, etc., have high-powered power parts, and they must constantly emit strong infrared radiation, especially airplanes and rockets. So fast, the result of the friction between the outer shell and the atmosphere will inevitably generate a large amount of heat, so that the intensity of the infrared radiation radiated from them increases much. Infrared guidance technology uses the powerful infrared radiation emitted by these targets to enable the missile to automatically aim and track, and cause the missile to automatically approach the target until it hits.

1.3 Laser guidance

Laser guidance was a new technology developed in the early 1960s. Because it has some superior characteristics, such as high precision of guidance, strong anti-interference ability, simple structure and low cost, it is a new and effective conductor system, so it is widely used in weapon guidance systems.
A guidance method that uses a laser to obtain guidance information or transmit a guidance command to cause the missile to fly to the target according to a certain guiding law. Laser-guided bombs (such as the US “Gem Road”), laser-guided missiles (such as the US “Halefa” anti-tank missile) and laser-guided artillery (such as “copper snake”)
Laser guided weapons were launched in foreign countries in the 1970s.
Development, laser semi-active guidance has been put into practical use, used in multiple models on the list, there are many models that have been included in the equipment, such as the United States. GBU-11A /B bomb, Haier missile and copper snake shell, France SAMP, Russian KAB-500 and KAB-1500 and color laser-guided bombs such as the Griffin.

1.4 Map matching guidance

Map matching guidance is a kind of guidance using map informationGuidance method. There are generally terrain matching guidance and scene matching guidance.The so-called terrain matching guidance refers to the scheduled flight line of the missile flight.Select some areas with obvious topographical features on the road as specificDistrict, store its digital elevation map in the missile computer, whenAfter the missile flies above the positioning area, the air pressure barometer and the radar are high.Comprehensive measurement of the field elevation, the measured data and pre-stored data Performing a comparison to determine the deviation of the current position of the missile from the predetermined position, Forming a command to direct the missile to a predetermined area or target technology. Scene matching guidance is the use of missile equipment to shoot missiles flying through images of regional scenery, digitally converted, and pre-stored numbers Compare the scene map to determine if the missile deviates from the scheduled flight Line, if a deviation occurs, an error control signal is generated to control the missile Guidance technology that flies to a predetermined area or target.

2. Precision guidance technology development trend

The precision guidance technology in the 21st century is still a hot spot in the research and development of military technology. With the rapid development of information technology, precision guidance technology will surely achieve great development, supporting the precision strike capability of precision guided weapons.
With the advent of the information age, the proportion of precision-guided weapons used in high-tech local warfare is increasing. The development of precision guidance technology has shown the following characteristics.

1. Multimode or composite guidance will gradually evolve into the primary means of precision guidance. The dual-mode homing composite guidance technology has become increasingly mature, and the future three-mode composite homing guidance technology will be put into practical use. For example, Japan has begun to develop microwave/millimeter/infrared tri-mode seek heads for air-to-air missiles. Two-color infrared imaging, infrared imaging and millimeter wave, infrared imaging and broadband microwave passive radar, active and passive radar and other multi-mode or composite guidance are the focus of development;
2. Optical guidance will mainly be based on imaging guidance, gaze infrared imaging guidance is the main guidance mode, and solid-state laser non-scan imaging guidance will be greatly developed. Millimeter wave imaging guidance and microwave imaging guidance in RF guidance are the development focus of RF guidance;
3. In order to meet the needs of long-range precision strike, the medium guidance and terminal guidance composite guidance technology will be widely used with the increase of range. The guidance of the inertial navigation and global positioning system will be widely used in the guidance of the middle guidance, and the dual guidance and automatic target will be adopted for the terminal guidance. Identification algorithm
4. Improve target recognition and adaptive tracking and anti-jamming capability in complex battlefield environments;
5. Develop synthetic aperture radar imaging technology and new detection technology to increase the range of action so that weapons can attack targets outside the zone;
6. Research and development of intelligent information processing technology (software and hardware), with emphasis on automatic target recognition (ATR) technology research;
7. Development of micro-processing technology The INS and GPS are integrated into the missile system as a whole. This integrated INS / GPS technology has better anti-interference performance, light weight and small size, suitable for missile installation;
8. Continue to improve the terminal guidance technology to improve the accuracy of hits and combat around the clock and improve anti-interference ability. It is predicted that the advanced technology of precision strike weapons around 2020
   Mainly: micro-precision inertial gyro technology; micro-guided bomb technology; hard target penetration technology; supersonic fuel engine technology; new concept missile-free adaptive supersonic missile technology. The development of precision guidance technology has enabled the development of precision guided weapons to develop in the direction of serialization, intelligence, improvement of range and guidance precision, stealth, multi-function warhead, supersonic speed and cost reduction to meet the needs of future battlefields.

3.Conclusion

After half a century of development and warfare testing, precision-guided weapons have become the handcuffs of the weapons kingdom. The widespread application of precision-guided weapons in warfare will inevitably lead to dramatic changes in the form of operations. At the same time, the transformation of the operational form will inevitably require newer and higher requirements for the development of precision-guided weapons, and promote the development of precision-guided weapons in the direction of higher precision, greater power, and stronger penetration capability.

Interference

[1]Baidu Wenku
[2]Development trend of precision guidance technology, Jiang Sun, Gang Li, Hao Fan.