Design and Performance of a C/A Code Receiver for Projectile Registration

Joseph Price

Abstract:	For the last several years, the US Army has been engaged in the GPS Auto-registration System Program. The program was to develop, build, and test a GPS-based transponder located in the fuze section of a standard 155- mm projectile and a ground-based receiver system to track the projectile in flight and calculate its actual path. The difference between the initial (pre-flight) trajectory estimate and the calculated path may then be used to improve the effectiveness of subsequent artillery fire by removing down range metrology effects and other causes of unknown bias errors. This paper discusses the design of a near-real time, differential C/A code receiver which was used to track and assess the performance of C/A and P/Y code GPS signal transponders on gun-launched projectiles. Position solutions were obtained at a 10Hz rate for a gun-launched, 155mm projectile, from 10.8 seconds after launch until shortly before ground impact The design is based on the Plessey GPS Builder Development System (PDS). The discussion includes signal de-translation, trajectory aiding, satellite-selection, and techniques used to expand PDS capabilities. It is oriented toward the applications engineer who desires an understanding of how the PDS can be modified for tracking other transponder-equipped assets.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 1999 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 25 - 27, 1999 Catamaran Resort Hotel San Diego, CA
Pages:	241 - 249
Cite this article:	Price, Joseph, "Design and Performance of a C/A Code Receiver for Projectile Registration," Proceedings of the 1999 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, CA, January 1999, pp. 241-249.
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