Maneuver in vertical plane of an unpowered flight vehicle to minimize risk of being detected in approaching a target

Abstract

The unpowered flight vehicles have demonstrated high effectiveness on the battlefield. However, their disadvantages have become more apparent, one is the relatively high risk of being detected by modern air defense systems due to the heat-radiated emission. Although they do not have any propulsion devices, they may still emit heat into the air. When they fly, a thin layer of air surrounding their surface is irritated, generating heat-radiated. This energy may be detected by modern thermal seekers of man-portable air defense systems located two to three kilometers away. Based on our own published work that confirmed the possibility of unpowered flight vehicles achieving a range of seventy to ninety kilometers, this paper focuses on solving the problem of optimizing a maneuver trajectory according to the criteria of minimal effective heat-radiated energy to reduce the risk of being detected in approaching a target. The problem is solved based on the selection of the suitable function of the normal load factor to create the maneuver trajectories in almost heat-invisible conditions at night time. As a result, the paper obtains an optimal trajectory with nearly four times less effective heat-radiated energy than the traditional trajectory.