Application of optimal tracking to goal-seeking attack vehicles

In many important tactical situations, an attacking vehicle is guided toward a selected target by means of a control law selected to optimize a quadratic performance index. When this occurs, the tracking observer may take this intelligence into account and realize improvement in both the tracking accuracy and an estimate of the attacker´s ultimate destination. An evaluation is given of Luenberger´s proposed solution to problems of this type by determining for a missile analogy example the sensitivity of tracking performance to the tracker´s knowledge of the attacker´s intelligence parameters and by comparing the performance obtained using the proposed method with that provided by more conventional approaches that do not utilize a priori intelligence information. Conclusions regarding the practical implementation of the new approach are then drawn.