CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

According to the dictionary guidance is the process of guiding the path of

an object towards a given point, which in general may be moving. The process of

guidance is based on the position and velocity if the target relative to the guided

object. The present day ballistic missiles are all guided using the global positioning

system or GPS.GPS uses satellites as instruments for sending signals to the missile

during flight and to guide it to the target. SATRACK is a system that was developed to

provide an evaluation methodology for the guidance system of the ballistic missiles.

This was developed as a comprehensive test and evaluation program to validate the

integrated weapons system design for nuclear powered submarines launched ballistic

missiles.this is based on the tracking signals received at the missile from the GPS

satellites. SATRACK has the ability to receive record, rebroadcast and track the

satellite signals. SATRACK facility also has the great advantage that the whole data

obtained from the test flights can be used to obtain a guidance error model. The

recorded data along with the simulation data from the models can produce a

comprehensive guidance error model. This will result in the solution that is the best

flight path for the missile.

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 CHAPTER 2

GPS SIGNALS

The signals for the GPS satellite navigation are two L-band frequency

signals. They can be called L1 and L2.L1 is at 1575.42 MHz and L2 at 1227.60

MHz.The modulations used for these GPS signals are

1. Narrow band clear/acquisition code with 2MHz bandwidth.

2. Wide band encrypted P code with 20MHz bandwidth.

L1 is modulated using the narrow band C/A code only. This signal will give

an accuracy of close to a 100m only. L2 is modulated using the P code. This code

gives a higher accuracy close to 10m that is why they are encrypted. The parameters

that a GPS signal carries are latitude, longitude, altitude and time. The modulations

applied to each frequency provide the basis for epoch measurements used to determine

the distances to each satellite. Tracking of the dual frequency GPS signals provides a

way to correct measurements from the effect of refraction through the ionosphere. An

alternate frequency L3 at 1381.05MHz was also used to compensate for the

ionospheric effects.

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4
Fig:2.1 Satrack concept

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 CHAPTER 3
SATRACK CONCEPT

Guidance system evaluation concept of very early weapons systems

depended on the impact scoring techniques. This means that the missile was shot and

the accuracy was formulated on the scoring or the target destruction. This evaluation

method was unacceptable for evaluating the more precise requirements of the latest

systems. A new methodology was needed that provided insights into the major error

contributors within the flight-test environment. The existing range instrumentation

was largely provided by radar systems. they however did not provide the needed

accuracy or range in the broad ocean test ranges. The accuracy projections needed to

be based on the high confidence understanding of the underlying system parameters.

SATRACK was developed with the necessary hardware and telemetry stations.

The figure shows the SATRACK measurement concept. The main parts are

the GPS satellites, the missile translator and ground telemetry stations. The missile

receives the signals from the GPS satellites. They are translated to another frequency

and relayed to the ground telemetry stations. The telemetry station records the data for

playback and for post processing.

The satellite signals received at the missile are translated to S-band

frequencies for the telemetry station using the missile hardware called translators. The

ground based telemetry station record the data after reception through the antenna

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after digitising the signals. Some ground sites uses L1 C/A signals to provide real time

tracking solutions.

GPS TRANSLATOR

This flight hardware is fixed in the missile. The translator receives the GPS

signals and they are amplified, shifted to an intermediate frequency, filtered to cover

the satellite signal modulation bandwidth, shifted to an output frequency. Then they

are amplified for transmission to one or more ground stations.

Fig. 3.1 GPS Translator

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The translator does the following

1. Received the satellite signal

2. Translated it to a missile telemetry frequency (S-band)

3. Rebroadcast the received signal

GPS translator are of both Analog and digital types The Analog translators

heterodyne the L-band signal to S-band adds a pilot carrier to allow the monitoring of

the reference oscillator variations. Both wide and narrow band type of Analog

translators are used. Digital translators down-convert the received L-band GPS signal

to near base band and digitises it. This digitised data is modulated into an S-band

carrier and transmitted to the ground stations.

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 CHAPTER 4
FIELD SUPPORT EQUIPMENT

SATRACK is the most useful tool because of its post flight processing

facility .The ground equipment consists of receiving antenna, data recorder and

auxiliary reference timing systems. The equipment receives the translated GPS signal

along with other telemetry signals and distributes it to the data recorder. Most ground

stations are capable of generating a precise atomic timing standard. The earlier

equipments were narrowband recorders that relied on high-speed tape recorders. These

gave up to 14 tracks of recording channels with four mega samples per second. The

translator processing system was developed for the national missile defence

exoatmospheric re-entry intercept subsystem where it served as a real-time GPS

processor for range safety as well as data recorder. Some later versions were capable

of processing data from both analogue and digital translators.

PORTABLE GROUND EQUIPMENT

This hardware is used for the post flight processing and tracking of the

satellite signals. The SATRACK facility processes the raw data into a time series of

range and Doppler measurements for each satellite, and the Kalman filter, which

incorporates various corrections and generates a navigation solution for the missile.

The system has undergone a lot of redesign and development as the requirements

evolved with new type of translators and receivers. The latest system processes the

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wideband L1/L2 signals dual frequency P-code as required by wide band translators.

The system hardware is based on Analog Device SHARC processor. Most of the

custom GPS processing hardware is based on field programmable gate arrays [FPGA].

Each board has the ability to track up to eight channels. The user interface is done

using windows based PC workstations.

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POST FLIGHT TRACKING AND DATA PROCESSING

This is the most important part of the SATRACK technology

FIG 4.1 Basic SATRACK configuration.

For a number of days surrounding the missile flight, GPS signals are received,

tracked, and recorded at the GPS tracking sites.

During the missile flight, GPS signals are received by missile, translated in

frequency, and transmitted to the surface station(s).

A tracking antenna at the station receives the missile signals, separates the

various components and records the data.

The post-flight process uses the recorded data to give satellite ephemeredes

clock estimates tracked signal-data from the post-flight receiver, and missile

guidance sensor data.

After the signal tracking data are corrected, all the data element and the system

models are used by the missile processor to produce the flight test data

products.
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 The figure shows how the post flight tracking facility accomplishes

precision tracking of the GPS signals through the playback of the recorded translator

signals. High accuracy satellite ephemeredes and the clock estimate covering their

span of test flight is obtained. These data along with the processed telemetry data help

provide the tracking aids for the post flight receiver and measurement estimates for

the missile processor. The translator passes signal for all the satellite in view of the

missile antenna and the post flight receiver provides all in view satellite signal

tracking. During play back satellite signals are tracked through delay locked loops

For range code modulation and phase locked loops for carrier phase

tracking.

The post flight processing of the recorded data is used to test the accuracy

of the measurements that is to evaluate the guidance system. The concept can be

explained based on the block diagram given below.

fig:4.2 strategic weapons systems accuracy evaluation concept

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 The procedure was developed by whish the uncertainties with whish we

observe a performance as well as the finitude of test programs was translated in to

specified confidence in the accuracy parameters being estimated. Information theory

provided the basis for developing the algorithms that could quantify the confidence

with which accuracy could be estimated. Next performance needed to be known, not

just the system level but at the subsystem level also. The accuracy evaluation program

had to be able to isolate faults and estimate performance of the subsystems or the

various phases of the system. Since the allowable number of test used for the

determination of estimates were limited to 10to 20 the instrumentation had to be of

high quality to provide the high confidence measurements hence to get good

confidence estimates. In addition to this, we also needed to extrapolate the untested

condition that is to predict tactical performance with high-quantified confidence from

test data.

Data from each accuracy test was analysed using some variant of the

Kalman filter. Within these filters are the detailed models of both the system and the

instrumentation for each system. The figure depicts how this analysis is accomplished.

Given a particular test or scenario measurement, data are collected on the various

subsystems. Using rigorous methods, these data are collected with prior information

generally developed and maintained by builders of the various parts of the system

under test. This prior information is necessary for the single test processing, given the

incomplete observability of the error sources. The outputs of the filter provide the

basis for understanding particular realizations of system and subsystem behaviour.

Analysis results provide insight in to the sources and causes of the inaccuracy. The

results of the multiple tests the outputs of the Kalman filter serve as the inputs to the

cumulative parameter estimation process. All prior information regarding the relative

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error models is removed so that the estimate accuracy is derived solely from the test

data.

fig:4.3 reconstruction of sources of missile impact miss distance error

The graph shows a hypothetical diagram used to allocate contributions to

the impact miss. This method is based on projecting each error contributor and its

uncertainty into impact domain.

1. first level allocation is at the subsystem level: initial conditions, guidance, and

deployment and re-entry

2. second-level allocation provides data for major error groups within each

subsystem eg: accelerometers

3. third-level allocation (not given in figure) produces estimates of fundamental

error terms of guidance model eg: an accelerometer scale factor error.

This process solves the highly non linear equations for the means,

variances, and Markov parameters that characterize the overall system accuracy

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performance. In addition uncertainties in the parameter estimates are calculated so that

we have a quantitative measure of our confidence in the solution .The ultimate desired

product is system performance under tactical not test conditions. Here we rely heavily

on the tactical gravity and weather conditions developed from data and

instrumentation. These models along with deterministic simulations of the system are

then used to propagate the fundamental model parameter estimates and the

uncertainties to the domain of interest-system accuracy at the target.

The carrier phase tracking of the signals provide the critical

measurements .The measurements of the GPS signal; phase sense range changes along

the line of sight for each signal to a small fraction of the wavelength usually a few

millimetres. These measurements which when compared to their values computed

from guidance sensor data and satellite position and velocity estimates, provide most

of the information. Noise in the measurement of the recovered GPS range code signals

is of secondary importance. In essence, the inertial sensors provide high frequency

motion information better than the signal processes, the Doppler information senses

the systematic errors associated with the inertial sensors and the range data provide an

initial condition for all the dynamic measurements. The range noise remaining after

the process of smoothing of the noise is smaller than the other bias like uncertainties

that set the limit on absolute position accuracy e.g.: the satellite position.

The missile and satellite trajectories including stimulated errors for satellite

position and clocks were used dot drive the satellite signal generators to produce the

simulated GPS signals. These are then passed through digitally controlled phase

shifters and time multiplexing switch to emulate the missile GPS antenna network.

This is connected to a missile translator hardware simulator that produced the GPS

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signals at S-band. An S-band antenna hardware simulator produced the outputs, which

were recorded by the prototype telemetry station receiver, and the recording

equipment .The hardware simulator drivers were conditioned to encompass all

anticipated effects including signal refraction through the ionosphere and troposphere.

The recorded data were equivalent to the data that would be received from telemetry

site.

The post flight processing facility now has all the inputs, GPS ephemeredes,

clock files, telemetry data and translated signal data tape. These data are then

processed and an estimate of the underlying model errors is produced. In addition, the

testing of the post processing system is done by this method.

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 CHAPTER 5

MAJOR BREAKTHROUGHS

1. EVALUATION CAPABILITY FOR CUMULATIVE FLIGHT TEST

ACCURACY

The limitations of the test geometry prohibit observations of all the errors

in any single flight test. Since each test flight provides observations of the underlying

system missile guidance error models, the data can be combined from may flight tests.

The final cumulative analysis of flight test data produces a guidance error model of

the weapons system. It combines observations from each flight to derive a missile

guidance model that is both tactically representative and based completely on the

flight test data. This model combined with other similarly derived sub system models

helps develop planning factors used to assign weapons system targets

2. FULL DIGITAL IMPLEMENTATION.

The full digital implementation is of the Portable ground equipment and

processing facility. So, the results are expected to be repeatable. This is a very big

improvement over the Analog circuitry such as the Analog PLLs used for carrier-

phase tracking loop. In addition, the digital implementation removes the need for

periodic hardware calibration that accompanies the analog circuits

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3.BATCH MODE PROCESSING

This type of processing allows hardware to operate with software like

flexibility. As the pure software system was too slow, hardware that is fully

configurable under software control implemented the most computing intensive

portions of the process such as signal correlation, generation of local code and carrier

signal mixing. It is possible to acquire the signal with virtually no acquisition delay by

conducting extensive searches with initial batch of data until all the signals are found.

4. FLEXIBLE ARCHITECTURE RECEIVER

The batch mode processing has been applied to stand alone real time

capable receiver called FAR. It retains the essence of batch mode architecture. While

maintaining the capability to process the data in real time. FAR is a single channel L1

C/A only receiver with a front-end data storage memory that buffers unto one s of

data. It can track up to 16 satellites in real time without any loss from channel

multiplexing

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 CHAPTER 6

ADVANTAGES

Supervisory Position Reporting.-Device wakes up, locates by GPS, transmits

location, resumes sleep mode. Up to 12 programmable sleep intervals or wake up

settings.

External Sensors Supported.-Sensors can be Dry contact, Custom Serial,

Universal Multimode Sensors (humidity, light, refrigerated temperature, door, dry

contact).

Integrated Motion Sensor.-Message on start and stop, engage interval override

on motion for time or motion duration.

Geo-Fencing.-Device alarms when it is outside the geographical boundaries set

for it.

Field Programmable.-Configurable using a laptop or PDA.

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 CHAPTER 7

APPLICATIONS

1. Best flight path for Aircrafts during post flight processing

2. The. Provides error guidance model

3. FLY BY WIRE SYSTEM (DRONES

4. Orbitary Determination of Vehical Tracking

5. In the Satellite Communication used as recorder ,guidance system, and Interpreter.

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 CHAPTER 8

CONCLUSION

SATRACK is a significant contributor to the successful development of and

operational success of the trident weapons system. It provides a unique monitoring

function that is critical to the maintenance of strategic weapons systems. The

development and research leading up to this technology has been instrumental in

bringing out the latest in GPS receiver, translators, data recorders etc.several special

test have been conducted with various combinations of inertial systems, GPS

receivers, translators as well as RF/antenna designs. Special tests have demonstrated

that accuracy a be achieved to support potential new and extremely demanding tactical

strike scenarios. The development of SATRACK looks forward to the implementation

of the Low Cost Missile Test Kit. [LCTMK]. one other main development from this

technology was the development of sophisticated tools for optimal target patterning.

Instrumentation, analytic methods, and modelling and the use of limited and

expensive flight tests assets were also born out of the SATRACK research.

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 CHAPTER 9

REFERENCES

Marc Camacho and Sung Lim:SATRACK tests missile accuracy, IEEE

Instrumentation and Measurement pp: 37-45 June 2003

D. R. Coleman and L.S. Simkins,The fleet ballistic missile accuracy

evaluation program, Johns Hopkins APL Tech Digest Vol.19 No.4

pp 393-397 1998

T.Thompson, L.J.Levy, and E.Westerfield, The SATRACK system:

Development and applications, Johns Hopkins APL Tech Digest Vol.19 No.4

pp 436-446 1998

David .E. Mosher, Ballistic missile defence,IEEE Spectrum pp29-39

September 1997

Shneydor N. A ,Missile guidance and Pursuit,Herwood Publishers pp 1-3,47-

48 1998

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