Development of Instrumentation, Control and Navigation (ICON) for Anti Tank Guided Missile (ATGM)

Abstract

Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) is Indonesian Army' main defense equipment, whose availability depends on purchasing from abroad. The dependency to other countries allows many weak points and makes Indonesia merely a user, which cannot do anything against the import of defense equipment. Moreover, as a user having obligation to report the status of the defense equipment to the producer, Indonesia's national security is at stake. Therefore, it is necessary for Indonesia to develop its own kind of ATGM according to the needs of the military. Instrumentation, Control and Navigation (ICON) system is the brain of ATGM. The whole process related to ATGM, starting from condition before it is launched, during the flight and when hitting the target, will be controlled and communicated through ICON. Therefore, ICON on board controller must have a very high processing speed and have the ability to receive various inputs and to send outputs to multiple modules with different characteristics and different communication protocols. Facilitated with Integrated Simulation System (ISS) being developed earlier, the development Hardware in the Loop Simulation (HILS) of ICON becomes easier. Thus, ICON development is more focused on modeling of ATGM for simulation to ensure that the main onboard controller currently using NI MyRIO (field programmable gate array / FPGA base micro controller) is able to do the whole process required by ATGM. As an initial simulation, ICON has been able to simulate the range based on the ignition booster - sustainer and optimization of control systems (roll and pitch). Booster is designed with a thrust of 140 kgf, burning time 0.25 sec and sustainer's average thrust of 140 kgf, burning time 4 sec, with pitch control on the rear moving fin, and at the same time kick-off timing of ignition sustainer; this results in maximum speed of 532.9 km/h, apooge 789.6 m and distance/range as far as 2.31 km. This simulation shows that ICON can function as real Onboard Controller, because the whole process of flying is simulated well through HILS. Further refinement needs to include gain, timing and other key variables that affect the outcome of the flight test.