A Method for Distinguishing Conical-Like Precession Targets Based on Range Profiles

With advances in research on ballistic missile penetration, ballistic missiles have many ways to break through defenses. One of these ways is to release not only warheads but also decoys in ballistic missile midcourse. Like real warheads, some highly simulated decoys spin to control their attitude and have the same shape as the real warheads, which are all conical-like. Therefore, it is difficult to distinguish such highly simulated decoys simply by their appearance. In this paper, we propose a method to distinguish conical-like warheads and decoys of the same shape by using the different changes of range profile. Firstly, one can recognize the conical-like target by template matching. Then, the conical-like warheads and decoys can be distinguished by comparing the change in the range profiles over a period of time. Due to the mass of the real warheads is greater than the mass of the decoys, there will be differences in the precession speed of the warheads and decoys, as well as in the speed of change in the angle of sight relative to the radar. The range profile of the real warheads will change faster than the one of the decoys. The range profile changing rate of the warheads will bigger. Simulation experiments verify the effectiveness of this method.