Field-of-view constrained two-stage guidance law design for three-dimensional salvo attack of multiple missiles via an optimal control approach

This study considers the cooperative guidance problem for multiple missiles against a stationary target with the field-of-view constraint. A two-stage guidance scheme is proposed to realize salvo attack of multiple missiles without using any information on time-to-go or its estimation. In the first guidance phase, this study integrates the cooperative guidance problem, state tracking problem and field-of-view constraint into a unified optimal control framework. A non-quadratic field-of-view constraint cost is innovatively constructed via an inverse optimal control approach, which leads to an analytical, distributed, and optimal guidance law to provide favored initial conditions for the latter phase. The stability and optimality of the closed-loop system is also proven. With respect to the second guidance phase, missiles disconnect from each other and are governed by the typical pure proportional navigation guidance law to eventually realize the salvo attack mission. Numerical simulations are performed to validate the theoretical results.