 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
New Technology For Straying Missiles
London - Sep 29, 2002 The US Navy has developed a new missile guidance technology that it hopes will cut the number of casualties caused when its missiles are wrongly targeted or go astray. In a report carried by New Scientist, the technology is said to allow a commander to redirect a missile that appears to be heading for the wrong target, as a result of malfunction, or because the target moved or was wrongly identified in the first place. This happens all too often. During the Kosovo conflict of the late 1990s, a radar-homing missile intended for a radar site in Serbia strayed 50 kilometres into neighbouring Bulgaria. And in August 1998, US cruise missiles missed Al-Qaida targets and landed on Pakistan instead. If the troops who fired the rogue missiles had been able to intercept and redirect them, they could have avoided risking damage and "friendly fire" casualties. "Increasingly in the West we want to fight from out of harm's way," says Andrew Brookes, at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. That means launching missiles increasingly far away from the target. But as the distance to the target increases, so do the chances of the target's situation changing. The new system, confusingly known as automatic target acquisition (ATA), allows a human to intervene if the missile appears to be going astray. It is already being fitted to the US Navy's SLAMER missiles, which in many respects work like a smaller version of a cruise missile. SLAMERs are normally fired from planes outside enemy lines, and then fly in close to the ground, finding their own target using GPS satellite positioning signals and terrain recognition. ATA marks a sea change in this attitude of using "fire and forget" weapons, says Brookes. ATA-equipped SLAMERs carry an infrared video camera that sends pictures back to the plane that launched the missile. The pilot will see if the missile is heading for the wrong target and redirect it. But the missiles don't always need the pilot: they can select their own targets if communication with the aircraft is lost. By comparing the images from an onboard infrared camera with images provided by mission planners they can locate small targets in a cluttered environment. "We don't tout it to be an autonomous capability because we need the pilots to be the man in the loop," says Carl Reiber, who manages the ATA programme at the Naval Air Station in Patuxent River, Maryland. That's because in autonomous flight, the missile is back to "fire and forget" mode that the ATA system is trying to get away from. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links New Scientist SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com All about missiles at SpaceWar.com
Northrop Grumman Wins Contract For Target And Space-Launch Missile Work
Reston VA (SPX) Jan 12, 2006Northrop Grumman has been awarded a follow-on contract to provide technical support to the U.S. Air Force's Rocket Systems Launch Program (RSLP). |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
