Successful Flight Test of a GPS and Radar Aided Inertial Navigation System

James L. Anders, Carl Johnson, Alfred M. Luckau, Todd A. Moore, and Renato S. Ornedo

Abstract:	On January 25, 2001, a Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) flight test was successfully conducted off the coast of Kauai to evaluate the SM-3’s airframe stability and control through kinetic warhead (KW) separation. This is the third in a planned series of nine test flights to demonstrate an exoatmospheric hit-to-intercept of a ballistic missile target. The SM-3 is multi-stage missile that is launched from an AEGIS cruiser. Its third stage is equipped with an inertial navigation system that is aided by both GPS and uplinked radar data in order to provide the desired navigation and alignment accuracy at KW separation. This paper will describe the operational performance of this inertial navigation system based upon preliminary analysis of the January flight test data. The paper also will provide a brief top level design description of the GPS and radar aided inertial navigation system as well as its navigation accuracy requirements. Data comparing the differences between the GPS, radar, and inertial navigation solution will be presented. The navigation system performed superbly during the entire guided duration of the mission as well as during the unguided portion of the flight until the last telemetry signal. This aspect of the navigation system functional performance will be also addressed.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2002 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 28 - 30, 2002 The Catamaran Resort Hotel San Diego, CA
Pages:	289 - 293
Cite this article:	Anders, James L., Johnson, Carl, Luckau, Alfred M., Moore, Todd A., Ornedo, Renato S., "Successful Flight Test of a GPS and Radar Aided Inertial Navigation System," Proceedings of the 2002 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, CA, January 2002, pp. 289-293.
Full Paper:	ION Members/Non-Members: 1 Download Credit Sign In