For the problem of exo-atmospheric interception, a coverage-based optimal cooperative guidance strategy is developed for multiple inferior missiles against a maneuverability-superior target. First, the cooperative interception problem is transformed into a coverage problem of the target’s evasion capability. Leveraging the capture region theory of biased proportional navigation, the maneuvering coverage region of the interceptor relative to the target under nonlinear conditions is derived. This coverage region focuses on covering the target’s maneuverability range rather than its lateral position, effectively avoiding errors induced by linearization assumptions. Furthermore, by optimizing the energy consumption of all interceptors, an optimal cooperative guidance problem under coverage constraints is formulated. The Lagrange multiplier method is employed to analytically solve for the real-time guidance commands for each interceptor, ensuring complete coverage of the target’s maneuverability range. Numerical simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed strategy.

In the flight test of cooperative aircraft floating at low altitudes, a single-station high-resolution radar can get sparse (even missing) and spatially incomplete measurements, while the radar observes a partial surface of the aircraft. This will lead to poor tracking accuracy for the tested aircraft. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a tracking method using augmented radar measurements by fusing aircraft navigation information. First, a symmetric positive definite random matrix is used to approximate the aircraft’s three-dimensional extension shape, which is roughly ellipsoidal, based on the structurally extended characteristic of the aircraft identified by the high-resolution radar. Subsequently, the partially observed aircraft model and the radar measurement model are both established. Further, multiple strategies are designed to augment sparse radar measurements using assisted aircraft navigation information, such that the radar measurement data is improved in both amount and spatial completeness. Finally, an implementation of aircraft state estimation under partial observation is given within the Bayesian filtering framework. The outcomes of the simulation experiment show that the proposed method improves the tested aircraft’s tracking accuracy and, consequently, awareness accuracy for its flight condition. Moreover, the proposed method has the advantages of high fusion usage of multi-source measurement information and a low computational cost.

Aiming at the assignment problem of multimissile and multitarget engagement (MME) scenario, this paper proposes a multi-to-multi energy optimal task allocation method based on interception capture region from the perspective of guidance. The characteristics of the capture region and optimal energy cost in the scenario of three-dimensional realistic true proportional navigation (3D-RTPN) intercepting arbitrary maneuvering targets are analyzed. The weight matrix is then built with the intention of achieving both the lowest total energy consumption and successful interception. In order to achieve multimissile and multitarget assignment (MMA), the adaptable Hungarian algorithm (AHA) is used. Numerical simulation is used to confirm the MMA strategy's efficacy. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by numerical simulation.

A differential geometric guidance law design method with the characteristic of fixed-time convergence is proposed. Firstly, a new control parameter selection mechanism is presented for the recently proposed Fixed-Time convergence Error Dynamics (FxTED) method. The number of control parameters are reduced from four to three, and a more accurate upper-bound of the error settling time is obtained. Secondly, for the guidance law design problem against stationary targets, the FxTED method is extended to the arc-length domain based on the classical differential geometry curve theory, and the differential geometric guidance law design method with the property of fixed-range convergence is proposed. Then, to address the problems of impact-angle-control guidance and flight-range-control guidance, two fixed-range convergence differential geometric guidance laws are designed. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through numerical simulation examples.

The performance of the three-dimensional differential geometric guidance law with proportional navigation formation against a target maneuvering arbitrarily with time-varying normal acceleration is thoroughly analyzed using the Lyapunov-like approach. The validation of this guidance law is firstly proved, and then the performance issues such as capturability, heading error control efficiency, line of sight rate convergence, and commanded acceleration requirement are analyzed, under the condition that the missile is initially flying toward the target with a speed advantage. It is proved that an intercept can occur and the line of sight rate and missile commanded acceleration can be limited in certain ranges, if the initial heading error is small and the navigation gain is sufficiently large. The nonlinear relative dynamics between the missile and the target is taken into full account, and the analysis process is simple and intuitive, due to the use of a convenient line of sight rotating coordinate system. Finally, the new theoretical findings are validated by numerical simulations.