Limitations of performance of a missile homing system

This paper would investigate fundamental limitations on the dynamic performance of a missile homing system. A linearized model of a proportional navigation guidance and control loop is shown in the block diagram below. This linear time-varying system is investigated in the paper. An important factor in the design of control systems is time-domain response to external inputs. Recent theoretical work on linear time-invariant system limitations is extended to linear time-varying systems, and is applied to the problem of determining the smallest miss distance achievable using a controller in the loop. This is formulated as a convex minimization problem. Application is made to the effect of hard limits on allowable missile acceleration on the final miss distance.