Optimal Planning of Missile Loiter Locations
In an effort to accommodate the highly dynamic and unpredictable nature of many modern-day enemy threats, several guided missile systems are undergoing critical enhancements so as to allow superior responsiveness to rapidly varying or emerging targets. One method of significantly increasing this ability is to provide the capability for the cruise missile to enter into and hold a loiter pattern in the vicinity of probable targets.
 Under contract to Nascent Technology Corporation/MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts (supporting the Navy’s SBIR program, specifically for the Tactical Tomahawk system), Maine Aerospace Consulting has developed a Matlab-based algorithm to optimally locate cruise missile loiter patterns, so as to optimize accessibility to a variety of targets, depending on target criticality and probability.
Given known locations, shapes and sizes of Areas of Interest (AOI), Zones of Exclusion (ZOE), threat locations and available launch locations (launch baskets)  | | click to enlarge |
as well as any number of possible targets and their associated probabilities, the software will choose the number of loiter patterns and their optimal location on a longitude/latitude grid. For example, in this Matlab plot the red polygons indicate AOIs, the blue polygons ZOEs and the black circles are threat locations. The green lines are optimal paths to the targets from specific launch baskets and the green circles are the selected loiter patterns. The general application of the software is to support and aid battlefield commanders in assimilating vast quantities of complex and rapidly changing information, during highly stressful and difficult warfare scenarios.
In addition to the missile loiter pattern planner, Maine Aerospace Consulting provided algorithm design and coding support for NTC’s Autonomous Highly Maneuverable Miniature Helicopter project under an ONR STTR. This software executed several different guidance modes to allow the vehicle to fly between specified waypoints, performing various autonomous maneuvers in route.
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; "click to enlarge")