One of the defense methods against ballistic missiles threat is to intercept them at the mid-course phase, which is a part of the ballistic trajectory that lays in space. At high altitude or in space, an interceptor missile can be guided by moving the main motor nozzle, known as TVC (Thrust Vector Control) or by reaction jets. Usually, space interceptors are not equipped with explosive warhead; therefore, a hit-to-kill collision is required. For this reason, a TVC control may not be sufficient because of its non-minimum phase feature, which increases the interceptor time constant. Therefore, in the last few seconds before the “end-game”, it is best to maneuver using forward reaction jets guidance or a combination of forward and tail reaction jets.
This research presents a theoretical and an experimental investigation of the solid propellant based reaction jets guidance system for an exo-atmospheric interceptor (kill vehicle). In the first part, a theoretical model of the system with a number of interceptor versions and reaction jets system was built and solved numerically. The reaction jets and interceptors performance was investigated using a computer simulation, integrated in a proportional navigation (PN) guidance loop. In the second part of the research, an experimental system was designed and built, whose purpose is to demonstrate the work of the reaction jets system and to measure its thrust, response time, internal pressure and temperature conditions.
