Thesis (M.S. in Applied Physics)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): William Colson, Robert Armstead. Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-68). Also available online.

This dissertation investigates advanced concepts in terminal missile guidance. The terminal phase of missile guidance usually lasts less than ten seconds and calls for very accurate maneuvering to ensure intercept. Technological advancements have produced increasingly sophisticated threats that greatly reduce the effectiveness of traditional approaches to missile guidance. Because of this, terminal missile guidance is, and will remain, an important and active area of research. The complexity of the problem and the desire for an optimal solution has resulted in researchers focusing on simplistic, usually linear, models. The fruit of these endeavors has resulted in some of the world's most advanced weapons systems. Even so, the resulting guidance schemes cannot possibly counter the evolving threats that will push the system outside the linear envelope for which they were designed. The research done in this dissertation greatly extends previous research in the area of optimal missile guidance. Herein it is shown that optimal missile guidance is fundamentally a pairing of an optimal guidance strategy and an optimal control strategy. The optimal guidance strategy is determined from a missile's information constraints, which are themselves largely determined from the missile's sensors. The optimal control strategy is determined by the missile's control constraints, and works to achieve a specified guidance strategy. This dichotomy of missile guidance is demonstrated by showing that missiles having different control constraints utilize the same guidance strategy so long as the information constraints are the same. This concept has hitherto been unrecognized because of the difficulty in developing an optimal control for the nonlinear set of equations that result from control constraints. Having overcome this difficulty by indirect means, evidence of the guidance strategy paradigm emerged. The guidance strategy paradigm is used to develop two advanced guidance laws. The new guidance laws are compared qualitatively and quantitatively with existing guidance laws.

Tarptautinei sistemai esant anarchiškai, dominuoja šalys turinčios didžiausią galią ir Lietuvos, kaip mažos ir turinčios mažai galios, šliejimasis prie supervalstybės JAV yra visiškai logiškas elgesys. Tuo pačiu Lietuvą su JAV sieja ir bendras identitetas, susiformavęs JAV nuosekliai nepripažįstant Lietuvos okupacijos 1940 ir 1944 metais, remiant Lietuvos nepriklausomybės atgavimą, puoselėjant ir padedant lietuvių emigrantus. Todėl Lietuvos atveju reiktų taikyti abi šias teorijas norint nagrinėti paramą JAV, NATO ir dalyvavimą jų rengiamose karinėse užsienio misijose. Kadangi po šaltojo karo pasaulis iš bipoliarinio, vienų autorių nuomone tapo multipoliariniu, o kitų – unipoliariniu (jame dominuoja JAV), todėl toks Lietuvos šliejimasis prie didžiausią galia turinčio polio (abiem atvejais tai yra JAV) tampa suprantamu ir atspindinčiu neorealizmo idėjas, todėl iš daugelio egzistuojančių tarptautinių santykių teorijų mano manymu tinkamiausios paaiškinti Lietuvos dalyvavimą tarptautinėse misijose yra Neorealizmas ir Konstruktyvizmas. Nors jos savo pagrindinėmis koncepcijomis prieštarauja viena kitai, bet Lietuvos atveju papildo viena kitą. Lietuvos šliejimasis prie JAV galios yra Neorealizmo teorijos veikimo lauke, o bendra vertybių sistema su Vakarų šalimis (labiausiai su JAV) – konstruktyvizmo ir istorinės patirties santykiuose su Rusija. Nagrinėjant karines Lietuvos užsienio misijas negalima apsiriboti tik tarptautinių santykių teorijomis, taip pat reikia suvokti geopolitinį... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / It has been known for several decades that a constantly growing asymmetry of the military power between the US and their NATO allies complicates transatlantic security relations. If allies cannot communicate in military terms, the risk of political split appears. Therefore one of the main priorities is the necessity to ensure that the allies are able to make their substantial military contribution. Lithuania also contributes to it by taking part in missions together with its allies. Missions are of military (using weapons, executing military operations and performing police functions) and civil character (providing help in case of natural disasters, sending humanitarian aid to voluntary soldiers). This paper focuses mainly on military missions. The subject of the paper: The participation of Lithuania in foreign military missions. The relevance of the topic: More and more often articles appear in Lithuania and abroad criticising the participation of the Western countries in peace missions, including Afghanistan; casualties, moral validity of these missions and heavy expenses are questioned; a more and more prevailing idea of Neorealism is mentioned. The goals of the paper: • To introduce the main trends of the theories of international relations; • To analyse the participation of Lithuania in foreign military missions with reference to the theories; • To introduce a geopolitical context of the participation of Lithuania in foreign missions; • To review Lithuanian foreign... [to full text]

The end of the Cold War marks the beginning of the policy shift from strategic stability (the policy that guided U.S. and Soviet nuclear doctrine and acquisition strategies throughout the Cold War) to a new strategy privileging ballistic missile defence (BMD). Prior to this shift BMD programs were considered by both sides to be financially untenable, technologically unreliable, and dangerously destabilising and potentially catastrophic, primarily because they risked undermining the stability of a second strike capability and other stabilizing features of mutually assured destruction (MAD). I argue that this new environment is making missile defence a viable alternative to massive nuclear arsenals. In this new security environment Canada remains an anomaly. Canadian officials support NATO BMD programs but reject any bilateral and/or bi-national negotiations with Washington on continental BMD for North America. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, I argue that Canada, through the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) agreement on early warning radars, is in fact part of missile defence.

The Cuban Missile Crisis has been considered by political scientists and historians as one of the most critical point in U.S. – Soviet relations during the Cold War and probably the only case of the possibility of the nuclear exchange was on highest level. The Cuban Missile Crisis was considered to be a part of continued political game of the ideological struggle between the leaders of United States and Soviet Union. However, the fact of the existence of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba created situation for U.S. government to decide what course of actions should be taken and not escalate a further confrontation, which could lead to a mutual nuclear exchange. The suggestions to such course of actions were coming from different members of the Executive Committee of the National Council or EXCOMM, which did make impact on U.S. president’s decision making in relation to Soviet installation of nuclear missiles in Cuba in October 1962.  The focus of this study relied on outcome of the decisions taken on secret meetings within the Executive Committee of the National Security Council or EXCOMM (included U.S. president as member of this committee) during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. The results of this study show if inter – and intragroup conflicts within EXCOOM made such impact on decision making outcome.

In this thesis, autopilots are developed for missiles with moderate dynamics and stationary targets. The aim is to use the designs in real applications. Since the real missile model is nonlinear, a linearization process is required to get use of systematic linear controller design techniques. In the scope of this thesis, the linear quadratic full state feedback approach is applied for developing missile autopilots. However, the limitations of measurement systems on the missiles restrict the availability of all the states required for feedback. Because of this fact, the linear quadratic design will be approximated by the use of projective control theory. This method enables the designer to use preferably static feedback or if necessary a controller plus a low order compensator combination to approximate the full state feedback reference. Autopilots are checked for the validity of linearization, robust stability against aerodynamic, mechanical and measurement uncertainties.

The intent of this study is to assess the role of fundamental Japanese security policy objectives in driving the significant shifts in Japan???s approach towards missile defence cooperation with the United States from 1993 to 2003. In studying the relative influence of the objectives that guided Japan???s approach towards missile defence cooperation, this thesis seeks to address a gap in the literature. A debate has occurred over the direction of Japanese security policy that is based on widely different assumptions on the importance attached to various fundamental security objectives. At the same time, Japan???s approach to missile defence has been the subject of considerable analysis that identified the crucial importance of the issue for the attainment of these fundamental security policy objectives. But no linkage has been established between these two levels of analysis. In particular, there has been an absence of assessments of what Japan???s decisions on missile defence cooperation indicate about the relative influence of the various objectives. This thesis developed an analytical framework to enable such an assessment by examining the structure of missile defence cooperation undertaken. Japan possessed a range of options in the level and type of involvement in missile defence cooperation. That involvement would determine the eventual type of benefits and costs incurred against the affected objectives. Cooperation agreed to (or rejected) over the ten year period thereby provides a means to determine the influence of key objectives on Japan???s approach, and in particular those objectives that restrained involvement. The thesis finds that a clear hierarchy existed in the influence of the various objectives on Japan???s approach with changes in their influence explaining the evolution of Japan???s commitment. The desire to strengthen the alliance, weakening domestic political constraints, and disregard of China???s opposition provide the key explanations. These findings not only point towards the respective strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches employed to explain Japanese security policy, but they also suggest the value of greater attention to the state???s ability to overcome domestic constraints in determining policy in order to fully understand the broader transformation of Japanese security policy.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2006. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.

Zugl.: Bielefeld, Univ., Diss., 2007

Zugl.: Bielefeld, Univ., Diss., 2007