Evaluation of Terminally Guided Reentry Vehicle Effectiveness against Undefended Hard Targets

摘要

This thesis examines the effectiveness of various reentry vehicle configurations when they are targeted against buried, hard targets. The configurations are based on the reentry vehicle parameters of yield and CEP as well as the number of reentry vehicles per missile. An examination of the ground shock and overpressure kill radii resulted in the use of overpressure as the hard target kill mechanism. The methodology developed to examine reentry vehicle effectiveness was programmed on a Hewlett-Packard HP-41CV. The methodology allows variations in CEP, weapon system reliability, weapon yield, and number of reentry vehicles per missile, and the desired kill level. The measure of effectiveness of each reentry vehicle configuration is the number of missiles required to achieve a desired kill level on a user defined target matrix. The results of the methodology were generalized with a set of exponential equations. Each equation is based on a desired kill level and a fixed number of reentry vehicles per missile. A sensitivity analysis on the various configurations revealed the relative impact of equal percentage changes in the factors used in this study. (Author)