Group cooperative midcourse guidance law for heterogeneous missile formation with optimal detection efficiency

For the problem of cooperative strike against multiple maneuvering targets, in order to improve the detection efficiency of multi-missile systems, this paper proposes a Group Cooperative Midcourse Guidance Law (GCMGL) for heterogeneous missile formation with optimal detection efficiency. Firstly, considering the adverse impact of target maneuvering on the guidance system, a Super-Twisting Disturbance Observer (STDO) is introduced to estimate target acceleration. Secondly, to avoid chattering in the system, a reaching law is combined with the design of the midcourse guidance law and cooperative detection control law for the leader missiles. This approach provides reference information for follower missiles and forms an optimal detection formation. Then, to achieve cooperative engagement of targets by follower missiles in groups, a group consensus protocol is introduced in the Line-of-Sight (LOS) direction to design the GCMGL. Simultaneously, in the direction normal to the LOS, when follower missiles cannot obtain the LOS angle combination information from the leader missiles, a distributed extended state observer is introduced to estimate it. Finally, a time-varying LOS angle Formation Tracking Midcourse Guidance Law (FTMGL) is designed based on this estimated information. The guidance law’s stability is validated using Lyapunov theory, and simulation experiments are performed to confirm its effectiveness and advantages.