Capturability of the 3-dimensional pure PNG law

Although a lot of effort has been recently devoted to the capturability analysis of the pure proportional navigation guidance (PPNG) law, there are still significant discrepancies between the analysis results and the actual capturability of the PPNG law. In this paper, a Lyapunov-like approach along with a vector analysis method based on the so-called LOS (line of sight) plane is introduced to analyze the capturability of the 3-dimensional PPNG law against a target maneuvering arbitrarily with time-varying normal acceleration. Thereby, our analysis result can explain the high capturability of the PPNG law theoretically much better than those presented in the prior literature. In our capturability analysis, the nonlinear dynamics of 3-dimensional pursuit situations have been taken into full account. Our approach is also expected to be useful for the design and analysis of other PPNG-like missile guidance laws