Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-2000

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Aviation Systems

Major Professor

R. B. Richards

Committee Members

Ralph Kimberlin, Fred Stellar

Abstract

Precision Strike has been the central doctrine of the Air Warfare Commanders of the U.S. Navy since this capability was demonstrated and proven during the month long air campaign of Desert Storm. Effectiveness analysis immediately following that conflict showed that natural and man made obscurations of targets, such as clouds and smoke, made precision targeting from the air impossible with laser guided munitions during an alarming percentage of attack missions. In order to attack a target with a laser guided precision weapon, the striking aircraft had to maintain an unobstructed line of sight until weapon impact in order to provide continuous laser energy on the target. To solve this dilemma, a requirement was set forth that demanded an all weather "through the clouds" precision attack capability. This requirement is being fulfilled by a bevy of new generation weapon systems that are collectively known as GPS guided weapons. These weapons are programmed with target location coordinates and navigate autonomously to the impact point after the aircraft release by using on board inertial navigation computers aided by Global Positioning Satellite technology. Subsequent military operations have employed these new generation GPS guided weapons with great success against fixed targets A significant deficiency has arisen however with GPS guided weapons in attacking relocatable targets. These targets include mobile missile systems, command and control vehicles, and troop convoys, and usually make up more than seventy percent of the overall target list. While the Navy is currently upgrading the F-14D Super Tomcats with the capability to employ GPS guided weapons, the aircraft does not have the capability of using its own sensors as a source of target coordinates. Therefore, if the intended target moves between the time it is located and the time that it is attacked, the GPS guided weapons will miss their mark. This study summarizes the F-14D weapon system and its capabilities and deficiencies in order to form a basis for improved GPS guided weapon targeting. It proposes three possible sources of accurate targeting information that the F-14D can provide to the GPS guided weapons, and outlines a test and evaluation procedure to verify the integrity and airworthiness of proposed avionics and software modifications, as well as a method to employ a systems approach to determine the capability of the F-14D precision strike system to accurately self-target for GPS guided weapons.

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