Chapter 1

Introduction

Module 1: Lecture 1
What is Guidance?

Keywords. Guided missiles, Tactical missiles, Strategic missiles, SAM, AAM, ASM,
SSM

1.1 What is Guidance?

Quite often people use the phrase guidance and control as a single entity. The reason is
that these two aspects almost always go hand-in-hand and there is no sharp distinction
between them. The intervening space is a grey area that some call guidance and others
control. But if you look at the overall picture you will realize that guidance is distinct
from control, although textbooks – even those which are specifically written on guid-
ance – fail to give a clear distinctive definition to these two terms. At the beginning of
the lecture let me make these definitions clear. I will borrow from one of the leading
experts in this field, Professor Arthur E. Bryson, who came up with a fairly clear defini-
tion of these terms. This he did in a paper published in the Journal of Guidance, Control,
and Dynamics in the year 1985 [see Bryson (1985)]. Curiously enough, such a clear def-
inition did not exist before Bryson defined these terms, although guidance and control
as separate entities has been active areas of research for many years.

A flight vehicle, regardless of whether it is a missile, an aircraft, or a launch vehicle,

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needs the help of human intelligence to achieve its mission. This human intelligence
manifests itself in various forms like gathering information about flight conditions,
generating appropriate commands to the flight vehicle, and designing equipments to
interpret these commands and translate them into action on-board. Each flight vehicle
has a mode of operation which might differ from another. For example, in a missile or a
launch vehicle, information is gathered by various sensors and conveyed to a computer
which then takes appropriate decisions. In an aircraft it is usually the human pilot who
takes decisions based upon similar information.

Irrespective of the kind of flight vehicle, the theory behind the design and analysis
of all these tasks eventually emanates from a branch of applied mathematics called
control theory. The application of control theory to aerospace may be divided into four
areas.

• Flight path planning: This refers to the determination of a nominal flight path and
associated control histories for a given flight vehicle to accomplish specified objec-
tives with specified constraints.

• Navigation: The determination of a strategy for estimating the position of a vehicle

• Guidance: The determination of a strategy for following the nominal path in the
presence of off-nominal conditions, wind disturbances, and navigational uncer-
tainties.

• Control: The determination of a strategy for maintaining the angular orientation of

However, it should be kept in mind that the boundaries between these four cat-
egories are not very sharp and they often overlap. For example, consider the aircraft
velocity and its angular orientation. These are coupled and so the guidance and control
of an aircraft must be considered together.

Since the focus of these lectures are mainly on guidance of flight vehicles, let us
define the term guidance in an intuitively appealing manner:
Guidance of Missiles/NPTEL/2012/D.Ghose 3

When one object, based on information gathered from its environment, moves in such a
way that it comes closer and closer to another stationary or moving object (a goal point) then
we say that the object is guiding itself toward its goal point.

The basic questions that a guidance system designer addresses are the following:

• What information do we need to collect from the environment?

• How do we go about collecting this information?

• How much can we trust the correctness of this information?

• How do we use this information to achieve our goal? (This, in fact, is the main objective of
guidance!)

• Is our capability sufficient to meet our goal?

• How do we know if we have reached our goal or not?

• Are there some secondary goals that we must keep in mind while trying to achieve our
primary goal? If yes, then how do we go about doing it?

1.2 What is a Guided Missile?

Guided missiles have been in the forefront of modern warfare since the Second World
War. Although it is true that guided missiles are mainly used for destructive purposes,
one cannot disregard the fact that they are the most outstanding examples of the ap-
plication of scientific techniques to design, control, and guide remote vehicles without
direct human intervention.

A simple definition of a guided missile would be the following [see Locke (1955)]:

A guided missile is a space-traversing unmanned vehicle which carries within itself the
means for controlling its flight path.

Another definition, based on its operational principle, could be the following [see
Garnell and East (1977)]:

A guided missile is one which is usually fired in a direction approximately toward the
target and subsequently receives steering commands from the guidance system to improve its
4 Guidance of Missiles/NPTEL/2012/D.Ghose

accuracy.

A number of different classifications of guided missiles are possible. However,

• Surface-to-Surface Missiles (SSM)

• Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAM)

• Air-to-Air Missiles (AAM)

• Air-to-Surface Missiles (ASM)

1.2.1 Surface-to-Surface Missiles

These missiles are launched from some point on the surface of the earth to another
point on the surface of the earth. They could also be launched from a ship. These mis-
siles are usually employed against large and stationary targets. The range of the missile
and the type of warhead it uses depends on the kind of targets. The target could be a
small factory or a big city. The range could be as low as a few kilometers to as high as
thousands of kilometers. Though the terminal accuracy required of the missile guid-
ance system is usually not much, the accuracy required for targets at long range must
be high compared to those required for short ranges. However, many recently designed
surface-to-surface missiles demand very high terminal accuracy. The accuracy of such
missiles depends, to a large extent, on the accuracy of determining the position of the
target with reference to some standard frame.

Missiles of this kind, by the very nature of their use, are offensive missiles. Mis-
siles employed for long-range targets are also known as strategic missiles. Short Range,
Intermediate Range, and Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (SRBM, IRBM, and ICBM)
are some of the generic names (based on the range performance) of these missiles. Some
examples of this type of missiles are : CSS-3 ICBM (Country of origin : China, Maxi-
mum range : 7000 km), SS-18 Satan ICBM (CIS-formerly USSR, 12000 km), Minuteman
ICBM (USA, 12500 km).
Guidance of Missiles/NPTEL/2012/D.Ghose 5

There could be a further classification of SSMs as ballistic missiles (those which leave
the atmosphere after launch and fly in a ballistic trajectory till re-entry into the atmo-
sphere) and cruise missiles (which fly at a relatively low altitude within the atmosphere).

1.2.2 Surface-to-Air Missiles

Any guided missile launched from a point on the surface of the earth to destroy a tar-
get in the air qualifies for this category. The launch point, however, could be either
a ship or land. Here the targets are always in motion and quite often have consider-
able maneuvering capability. The guidance system must be accurate since the targets
are usually small in size, move at high speeds, and/or are capable of executing complicated
maneuvers (e.g., fighter aircraft, helicopters, SSMs). Thus, these missiles have support
equipments which continuously collect information about the current position and ve-
locity of the target. The time available for the missile to destroy a flying target is usually
small and so the guidance system must be able to take appropriate actions in a short
period of time.

These missiles are normally used as defensive weapons. Some examples of such
missiles are : Gremlin SA-14 (CIS, 6 km), MANPADS (France, 4-6 km), Stinger (USA, 45
km), Patriot (USA, 160 km).

1.2.3 Air-to-Surface Missiles

These missiles are usually launched from an aircraft to destroy targets on the surface
of the earth. The targets could be moving (not at very high speeds) but are normally
stationary. The launch point (aircraft) is in motion. Hence, it is possible to search and
seek out targets whose positions or movements are not known beforehand. In other
words, the targets for such missiles are seldom predetermined as in the case of SSMs,
which means that the missile must have some means of seeking out these targets. This
causes the additional problems of avoiding spurious signals from the ground. Since
it is possible to come close to the target, accuracy can also be improved. However,
the launch point itself moves, and so the velocity and other dynamic properties of the
aircraft must be taken into account in the guidance system.

These missiles are primarily offensive weapons but can also be considered a defen-
6 Guidance of Missiles/NPTEL/2012/D.Ghose

sive weapon system depending on their actual use. Some examples are : Gabriel MK-III
(Israel, 40 km), HARM AGM-88A (USA, 25 km).

1.2.4 Air-to-Air Missiles

Here, both the launch point and the target are aircraft. These missiles are perhaps the
most difficult to design and build. Both aircraft are in motion at high speeds. They are also
capable of high maneuverability. Targets are small and difficult to locate. The guidance
system has to take into account all the factors mentioned for SAMs at the target end,
and those mentioned for ASMs at the launch end. In addition, the guidance system
should be such that it should not prevent the aircraft which launches the missile from
taking evasive actions for its own survival after the missile has been launched.

These missiles can be used both as offensive and defensive weapon systems. Some
examples are : Super 530 (France, 25 km), Ash AA-5 (CIS, 5-20 km), Sidewinder AIM-9
(USA, 5-15 km).

1.3 Tactical vs. Strategic Missiles

Tactical missiles are those which are used for achieving some short-term missions. By the
very nature of their function they are small in size, have short ranges, and have limited
destructive power. The short missions could be that of destroying a penetrating enemy
aircraft using a SAM or an AAM, destroying a small ground target (for example, an
enemy tank or an enemy supply base) using an ASM. Seldom are large SSMs used
for this kind of missions. Again, judging by their mission, tactical missiles are mainly
defensive weapons with limited capability for offence.

Strategic missiles are those that are used to achieve long term goals – the kind of goals
that will make a strategic difference to the outcome of a war. By the very nature of their
function they are large in size, have long ranges, and have vast destructive capabilities.
These are mainly SSMs and their missions could be destruction of a huge military-
industrial complex in the enemy territory or even big cities. These weapons are mainly
offensive weapons.

In these lectures we will restrict our attention only to the guidance of tactical missiles
which are mainly used for defensive purposes – for example, SAM category of missiles. We shall
Guidance of Missiles/NPTEL/2012/D.Ghose 7

study the guidance laws that are used to guide these missiles and also study how these guidance
laws and the fundamental principles behind them can be used for building many systems that
have predominantly peaceful uses.

1.4 Other of Missiles

Some terms referring to some special types of missiles are also used in common par-
lance. For instance, anti-satellite missiles (used to destroy military satellites), anti-
radiation missiles (that detects the presence of active radars by identifying their ra-
diations and destroys them), submarine launched missiles (these are missiles that are
launched from a submarine from the depths of the ocean and emerges into the at-
mosphere, and may continue on to exit the atmosphere and follow a ballistic trajec-
tory, ending with re-entry), anti-tank missiles (specially designed to penetrate tank ar-
mours), etc.

1.5 Peaceful Applications of Guidance

It is a proven fact of history that the most rapid advancement in modern science and
technology took place during the First and the Second World War and its aftermath
in the era of the cold war. The intense research and development activities that took
place during the Second World War spilled over into the second half of this century and
by its sheer momentum spawned an innumerable number of scientific inventions that
ultimately contributed to give us the modern society that we live in.

One of the lesser known facts is the contributions that the defence aerospace en-
gineering industry in the US has made to nurture the infant computer technology in
the fifties and give it a firm footing. Similarly, missile research has given rise to many
advanced technologies like small, compact, and light-weight antennas, efficient and
robust control systems, propulsion technology, among many others, that have a much
larger domain of important peaceful applications than those for which they were orig-
inally intended.

Equally important is the fact that, contrary to popular belief, there are numerous
peaceful applications of guidance theory that are emerging in the present day scenario of
a modern society based on rapid technological progress. The theory of guidance pro-
8 Guidance of Missiles/NPTEL/2012/D.Ghose

vides the basic framework for solving these important and practical problems in engi-
neering. Below we shall list some of them.

1.5.1 Applications in Robotics

One of the major problems in robotics is that of path planning of robots to avoid station-
ary or moving obstacles as robots move about in their work environment. Avoidance of
obstacles basically involves the detection of the obstacle, prediction of its trajectory, and tak-
ing corrective actions to ensure that there is no collision. The first two can be directly
identified with the intermediate goals in a guidance problem. The last is diametrically
opposite to what guidance has as a goal – in fact, it is so diametrically opposite that the
principles of guidance are also applicable to it. We shall show how this is so toward the
end of these lectures.

But apart from collision avoidance, guidance also has applications in another sense
in the robotics path planning. Automated guided vehicles, often have the goal of going
from a start point to a goal or destination point. This also requires guidance. But note that
the guidance that an automated guided vehicle will require will be based on a different
kind of system model. When we talk of missiles we are talking about a flight vehicle
where we do not have much control over the longitudinal velocity of the vehicle but
only on its lateral motions through aerodynamic control. Whereas, when we speak of
an automated guided vehicle we are talking about a vehicle which moves on ground,
is subject to both longitudinal and lateral control, and accordingly requires guidance
which can be expressed in terms of a larger number of parameters.

1.5.2 Smart Cars on Smart Roads

One of the major problems faced in the western industrialized countries is the problem
of transportation of people and goods over the surface of the globe [Varaiya (19993)].
The need to transport people will reduce, to a large extent (and will hopefully cease to
be a problem!), by the tremendous technological advancements in telecommunications
and the creation of the information superhighway. This will most probably become a
workable reality by the turn of this century. But transportation of goods by the conven-
tional means of railroad and highways will remain a necessary reality in the foreseeable
future. To improve the system of surface transportation there are massive projects being
Guidance of Missiles/NPTEL/2012/D.Ghose 9

undertaken to create what are known as smart cars on smart roads. The essential idea
behind these projects is to transfer the major part of the control of a car to an automatic
controller that will ensure that vehicles can move at tremendous speeds with very little
separation between them across long distances, on roads equipped with smart sensors.
For this we need sensors and other systems that can detect imminent collisions and
take fast corrective actions. These are objectives that are at the core of guidance theory
and its applications.

1.5.3 Docking of Spacecrafts

Docking is an operation by which one object fixes itself in a certain way on to a larger
object. For example, docking of a ship in its wharf involves this kind of maneuvers.
In futuristic space stations docking of a spacecraft will be one of the most intricate
maneuvers that will be performed. A spacecraft as well as a space station normally has
many appendages (antennas, solar panels, solar shields, and so on) which give them
a somewhat unwieldy shape. These appendages make the docking operation more
complicated as the spacecraft has to avoid collision between two appendages and at the
same time perform maneuvers that would make the docking operation successful. This
problem is related to the path planning problem in robotics but combines the features
of space operations along with conventional robotics.

1.5.4 Terrain Avoidance

Helicopters and other low-flying vehicles have to detect and avoid the underlying ter-
rain. They have to pass through mountain ranges where there is possibility of frontal
collision. To help the pilot in detecting and avoiding such collisions automatic pilot
advisory systems are built and put in the helicopter. There is considerable scope of
guidance theory being used, and is indeed being explored, for this kind of applications.

Assignment

1. Collect data about one missile each of the four category of missiles (AAM, ASM,
SAM, SSM). Do this for each of the following countries: India, USA, China, Rus-
10 Guidance of Missiles/NPTEL/2012/D.Ghose

sia, France, Germany, Pakistan. The data should cover standard information like
airframe configuration, size, weight, range, type of propulsion, etc.)

Use internet resources for this purpose. Wikipedia, Jane’s, etc., are standard web
resources. However, please mention the source from which you collect data. Al-
ways acknowledge the web source from which you have taken a picture to illus-
trate your data. This is ethical practice that must be followed.

Questions

1. Define (a) SAM (b) SSM (c) ASM (d) AAM.

2. What are tactical missiles and how are they different from strategic missiles.

3. Define the terms (a) Flight path planning (b) Navigation (c) Guidance (d) Control.

4. Describe a scenario involving a Air to Surface Missile (ASM) attacking a surface

5. What is a guided missile?

References and Further Reading

1. A.E. B RYSON: New concepts in control theory, 1959-1984, Journal of Guidance, Con-
trol, and Dynamics, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 417-425, July-August 1985.

2. P. G ARNELL AND D.J. E AST: Guided Weapon Control System, Pergamon Press, 1977.

3. A.S. L OCKE: Guidance, D. Van Nostrand Co., 1955.

4. R.G. L EE , C.A. S PARKES , D.E. J OHNSON: Guided Weapons, Brassey’s Inc, 3rd Edi-
tion, 2000.

5. P. VARAIYA: Smart cars on smart roads: Problems of control, IEEE Transactions on