Cooperative Defense Strategy for Active Aircraft Protection Considering Launch Time of Defense Missile

An aircraft can equip itself with a defense missile for active protection against an attack missile. Although a lot of strategies for cooperation between the aircraft and the defense missile have been studied, little attention has been paid to the early phase of the engagement. In this study, a cooperative defense strategy considering both launch and boost phase of the defense missile is proposed based on geometric approach. The strategy is derived to provide kinematic advantages to the defense team before it enters the end-game phase. Launch time of the defense missile is computed from the collision geometry. Numerical simulation demonstrates that the proposed defense strategy is useful for the defense team having no advantages on velocity and maneuverability over the adversary.