Missile impact location prediction using noisy range data

Predicting the impact location of Theater Ballistic Missile (TBM) RV´s has typically required tracking data from one or more traditional active and/or passive radar systems. When engine thrust terminates at booster engine cutoff (BECO), integration beyond burnout also requires an accurate state vector at the initiation of ballistic flight, and a reasonable estimate of the RV ballistic coefficient. The proposed algorithm requires no traditional radar data, but incorporates a single collector passive IR metric data set, and a slant range data set acquired via a PRA/KTAADN Monocular Passive Ranging (MPR) algorithm. The proposed study using IR metric and MPR data sets demonstrates the accuracy to which handoff state vectors (burnout to ballistic mode) must be known in order to achieve acceptable impact location accuracy´s. The study results demonstrate that using the less accurate (but also less expensive than radar) single collector MPR and IR metric data sets provides sufficient accuracy to produce useful RV impact location predictions