Aircraft Defense With Jamming Against a Pursuer With Limited Field-of-View

The problem of aircraft (A/C) evasion from a missile (pursuer) with a limited field of view (FoV) is investigated. In a short interception time scenario, instead of using evasive maneuvers, the A/C can take active countermeasures—jamming—to avoid damage. We present a comprehensive evaluation of jamming and maneuvers to increase the miss distance of a missile attacking an A/C. The pursuer is assumed to be under proportional navigation guidance law and has a seeker (sensor) mounted on it. The sensor controls the pointing angle of the pursuer and has a narrow FoV. The sensor viewing angle of its target is defined as the angle between the sensor pointing angle and the line-of-sight (LoS) to target angle. This should be within the FoV to keep tracking the A/C. The sensor becomes blinded when the A/C starts jamming it with a laser beam, which causes the pursuer to lose the guidance control or have the guidance stuck at its last value before jamming. The procedure of the pursuer’s sensor motion to keep the target A/C within the sensor’s FoV is then described. If, at the end of jamming, the A/C is within the FoV of the pursuer’s sensor, tracking and guidance restart. Otherwise, the pursuer continues as during jamming. Simulations show that the jamming helps the A/C to evade the pursuer with FoV constraints. Both the jamming start time and duration are crucial for the final miss distance. The A/C should start the jamming early with a longer duration, resulting in a larger miss distance and therefore reducing the A/C’s probability of damage. Also, the benefit of the A/C starting a maneuver at the same time as the jamming starts is evaluated.