In this paper the missile flight dynamics during the launch phase is studied. The main concept behind this work was to use a vertical cold launch system and the rapid pitch maneuver to achieve longer missile range and better firing coverage. A set of a small pulse rocket engines was used to obtain the desired missile attitude. The physical and mathematical models of the missile are described. The pulse jets control algorithm is presented. The computer program of the missile model has been developed in the Simulink environment. The missile behavior in the low-speed flight envelope has been examined. The results of numerical simulations in the form of the graphs are presented. It has been obtained that there exist several benefits of the cold launch method as increased range and higher target kill probability.

Identification of a spinning projectile controlled with gasodynamic engines is shown in this paper. A missile model with a measurement inertial unit was developed from Newton’s law of motion and its aerodynamic coefficients were identified. This was achieved by applying the maximum likelihood principle in the wavelet domain. To assess the results, this was also performed in the time domain. The outcomes were obtained for two cases: when noise was not present and when it was included in the data. In all cases, the identification was performed in the passive mode, i.e., no special system identification experiments were designed. In the noise-free case, aerodynamic coefficients were estimated with high accuracy. When noise was included in the data, the wavelet-based estimates had a drop in their accuracy, but were still very accurate, whereas for the time domain approach the estimates were considered inaccurate.

The development of projectile guidance requires consideration of a large number of possible flight scenarios with various system parameters. In this paper, the Monte-Carlo parametric study for a 160 mm artillery rocket equipped with a set of 34 small, solid propellant lateral thrusters located before the center of mass was evaluated to reduce projectile dispersion and collateral damage. The novelty of this paper lies in the functionality of modifying the shape of the trajectory in the terminal phase using lateral thrusters only. A six degree of freedom mathematical model implemented in MATLAB/Simulink was used to investigate the influence of numerous parameters on the resulting accuracy at several launch elevation angles. Augmented impact point prediction guidance was applied in the descending portion of the flight trajectory to achieve the trajectory shaping functionality. The optimum combination of thruster magnitude and algorithm parameters was obtained. The real data from the LN200 inertial measurement unit were used to investigate the influence of noise on the resulting accuracy. It was shown that with the proposed guidance method, the dispersion could be reduced by more than 250 times and the projectile impact angle might be increased when compared to an unguided projectile.

In the paper, influence of control surface failures on UAV aircraft dynamics is investigated. A method for control loads determination for a nonlinear UAV aircraft model is presented. The model has been developed to analyse the influence of various control surface failures on aircraft controllability and to form the background for developing reconfiguration methods of flight control systems. The analysis of the control system failure impact on the aircraft dynamics and the ability of the control system to reconfiguration are presented.

In vertical cold launch the missile starts without the function of the main engine. Over the launcher, the attitude of the missile is controlled by a set of lateral thrusters. However, a quick turn might be disturbed by various uncertainties. This study discusses the problem of the influences of disturbances and the repeatability of lateral thrusters’ ignition on the pitch maneuver quality. The generic 152.4 mm projectile equipped in small, solid propellant lateral thrusters was used as a test platform. A six degree of freedom mathematical model was developed to execute the Monte-Carlo simulations of the launch phase and to prepare the flight test campaign. The parametric analysis was performed to investigate the influence of system uncertainties on quick turn repeatability. A series of ground laboratory trials was accomplished. Thirteen flight tests were completed on the missile test range. The flight parameters were measured using an onboard inertial measurement unit and a ground vision system. It was experimentally proved that the cold vertical launch maneuver could be realized properly with at least two lateral motors. It was found that the initial roll rate of the projectile and the lateral thrusters ‘igniters’ uncertainties could affect the pitch angle achieved and must be minimized to reduce the projectile dispersion.