Optimum Calibration and Alignment Filter Gains for Minimizing Ballistic Impact Error

The objective of this paper is to show that minimizing the trace of the calibration and alignment error covariance matrix of an inertial ballistic guidance system also minimizes circular error probable (CEP) at the time of impact, independent of in-flight error miss-coefficients. This paper gives a complete derivation of the optimum calibration and alignment gains which minimize the error covariance matrix trace, and then follows with the derivation for minimizing the trace of the impact error covariance matrix. The two are shown to be equivalent.