Scatter pattern calculations and determination performance limitations of existing air defense systems for intercepting hypersonic vehicles

The article describes a methodology for determination performance limitations of existing air defense systems for intercepting a hypersonic vehicles. The methodology used results of scatter pattern calculations for hypersonic unmanned aerial vehicle X-51. A numerical 3D-model of the UAV was developed by author on the basis of public sources. The surface of the UAV is represented by a set of elementary flat areas with linear dimensions much smaller than a wavelength of air defense system. In accordance with the mathematics stated in this article, there were designed original software for calculated UAV scatter patterns. In these calculations vector of the electromagnetic field reflected by the UAV is represented as a complex value in 3D space. The reflected field is calculated taking into account scattering effect on the edges of the wings, on the edges of the intake and in the intake cavity. Special software packages, e.g., WIPL-D, were not used.