Missile Design: a Challenging Example for Control Education

An understanding of missile technology is nowadays a requisite for any (technical) officer of the armed forces. Control engineering is a key element for this understanding because of its direct relation to the performance of the missile. It emerges in the design of the flight control system and in the performance of the guidance law. This paper discusses three cases representing main issues which should be present in any military engineering curriculum: (1) vertical missile launch and thrust vector control, (2) optimal evader manoeuvres through exploiting weaknesses of the attacking missile in the guidance loop, and (3) the relationship between different control configurations and the limitations of the dynamic response of the missile.