A Novel Method to Develop High Fidelity Laser Sensor Simulation Model for Evaluation of Air to Ground Weapon Algorithms of Combat Aircraft

Successful release of any air to ground weapon from a combat aircraft is determined based on the positional parameters received from the sensors and the mission cues. Laser designated pod is one of the most sought weapon sensor, which gives the accurate data for Air to Ground weapon aiming. Laser designated pod being hardware intensive system, works with real world environment, it increases the development and integration effort towards finalising the weapon aiming algorithms and also pilot vehicle interface requirements. A novel method using mathematical models and the atmospheric error models is proposed to develop a high fidelity laser designated pod simulation model for functional and performance evaluation of weapon algorithms. The factors affecting the weapon trajectory computations are also considered in the sensor model outputs. The sensor model is integrated in the high fidelity flight simulator, which consists of both aircraft and Real world systems either as actual or simulated for close loop pilot evaluation. The behaviour of the sensor model is cross validated and fine-tuned with the actual sensor output and confirmed that the developed laser designated pod sensor simulation model meets all the requirement to test the air to ground weapons in the flight simulator.