Analysis of Pedestal Pointing Errors for Naval Ships by Using M&S Methodologies

The performance of mission equipment onboard naval vessels critically depends on its pointing accuracy. Therefore, errors induced by ship motions and pedestal compensation processes need to be systematically identified and quantitatively assessed. This paper investigates the pointing errors of mission equipment mounted on a shipboard pedestal through Modeling and Simulation (M&S) techniques. Ship motion responses under operational conditions are estimated, and the resulting translational and rotational motions of the pedestal are evaluated. Unlike previous studies, which primarily focused on drive errors of pedestal, this paper identifies all major sources of pedestal pointing errors and quantifies their magnitudes. This paper provides a more comprehensive basis for practical performance evaluation of shipboard pedestals.