Guidance system for missiles

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention provides a new type of missile guidance system capable of high performance with low weight and low production costs, and which is not affected by such dispersion forces as winds and misalignments and does not require an inertial reference system.
The new system is readily adaptable for either continuously accelerating missiles or missiles having constant or nearly constant velocity.
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a sensor for detecting the target is carried on the missile and is pivotally mounted in a gimbal system having two degrees of freedom.
The sensor is unbalanced in a manner which causes it to move pivotally and align its axis with the direction of forward acceleration of the missile, the two-degree-of-freedom mounting permitting such movement.
The sensor may be of any suitable type capable of sensing a signal from the target to determine the direction of the target from the missile.
The sensor thus determines the angle between the direction of acceleration of the missile and the direction of the target.
This information is processed on board the missile and generates guidance commands to the missile control surfaces determined by the angle between the direction of acceleration and the direction of the target and the rate of change of this angle, as well as the rate of the inner gimbal itself.
In this way, a system is provided which is very simple but which is capable of high performance and does not require any inertial reference, or sophisticated computer equipment on the missile.
The sensor can be of any desired type, either active or passive, to respond to any suitable signals received from the target such as infrared or radio-frequency radiation, a reflected laser beam, or other types of signals.
The system is inherently free of the effects of dispersion forces such as winds, thrust misalignment, and various offsets and misalignments in the missile itself since the sensor aligns itself with the resultant acceleration vector