Impact-time-control guidance law for anti-ship missiles

In this paper, a new guidance problem with the impact time constraint is investigated, which can be applied to salvo attack of anti-ship missiles. The closed form solution based on the linear formulation is derived, suggesting an additional loop for adjusting the impact time in addition to the traditional optimal guidance loop. This solution is a combination of the well-known PNG law and the feedback of the impact time error, which is the difference between the impact time by PNG and the prescribed impact time. The new guidance law called ITCG (Impact-Time-Control Guidance) can be used to guide multiple missiles to hit a stationary target simultaneously at a desirable impact time. Nonlinear simulation of several engagement situations demonstrates the performance and feasibility of ITCG. In addition, the similarity of the closed form solution and APNG is investigated and the switching rule for practical implementation is discussed.