Since the invention of radar, simple decoy systems for defeating its ability to recognize and follow targets have been proposed. In 1997, in a series of articles in the I.E.E.E. Forum, the properties of such decoys were reviewed and debated. The simplest countermeasure method is the deployment of chaff, small pieces of aluminum or metalized coatings, which produce too huge a number of reflections for the radar to handle.(1) Modern radar technology has made great strides, and if quick frequency changing methods were to be deployed at the transmitter, the relative frequency dependences of chaff and warhead reflections might, in principal, be used to distinguish the two. Also, on re-entry into the atmosphere the warhead would separate from the chaff. Another well known method to disguise warheads (2) consists of surrounding a warhead with a large radar radiation reflecting balloon and deploying a number of empty balloons along with this warhead. These are simple devices that are expected to be effective above the atmosphere but might fail in the re-entry phase, the light balloons showing much more deceleration inside the atmosphere than the heavy warhead.
Many decades have passed since the introduction of inert decoys. Advances in electronic and microwave circuitry now make possible a whole class of electronic decoys. New light, very wide-band antennas and radar amplifiers are off-the-shelf items and allow for more sophisticated active decoys that cannot be distinguished from the warheads. One can combine such antennas and amplifiers into transponders which return the received radar signal to the radar, overpowering the small reflected signals. Located on both the small decoys and the larger warhead, it was shown some time ago (3) that radar systems, such as those to be incorporated in THAAD, the Theater High Altitude Area Defense system, can be deceived. These large return transponder signals are called ``deceptive jammers'' since they do not saturate the radar but re-radiate a confusing signal immediately at the received radar frequency, anywhere in the range 2-20 gigaherz. These signals obscure the different lengths of decoy and warhead. They can also be provided with signals that can defeat autocorrelation methods which are used to identify objects by storing and processing consecutive received radar pulses from the target.
This present work deals mainly with the question of the ability of such decoys to be distinguished from warheads after they reenter the atmosphere. It is important that the decoys deployed with the warhead be not too heavy so that they adversely affect the maximum range of the warheads launched by the missiles. They can be physically small since the radars cannot distinguish their lengths from the lengths of the warheads: the transponder signals destroy that capability. But if, as a result, they are too light, their deceleration in the atmosphere will be large and distinguishable by the fine time resolution of modern radars which can accurately measure the deceleration.
The effect of the atmosphere is both to cause a deceleration along the missile path and an acceleration normal to the drag force, called the ``lift''. The drag force is defined as the force along the missile trajectory. The deceleration is defined as the (drag) force on the missile divided by the missile mass. To closely match the deceleration and the lift of decoy and warhead turns out to be possible, as this paper will show. This is can be accomplished because the length, the opening angle, the mean density, and the radius of the rounded nose of the cone-like decoy can be chosen to make decoy and warhead indistinguishable after penetration into the atmosphere. Since the two need not be distinguished below 50 km, where the density has become high, one can use Newtonian models for the deceleration. We shall see that because it is relative decelerations and lifts that must be matched, and not the exact magnitudes, the calculations are quite simple. In many cases, analytic expressions are derivable which give basic clues to the design, although simple computer calculations are sometimes used to obtain some of the results tabulated in the appendix.
II. Basic Drag and Lift Considerations
In this section, we consider entrance into the atmosphere for a warhead
axis lined up along its velocity axis, since this illustrates many of the
qualitative features. (In the Appendix we give the formulas for a symmetric,
conical warhead possessing a rounded-nose cone and making an ``access''
angle,
,
with the airflow direction.)
Figure 1 shows the geometry of a warhead, a solid cone with a rounded
nose. The nose radius is RN and the radius of the rear
of the cone is RC . The cone angle is
and the rounded nose joins smoothly to the cone. At that point the radius
of the sphere section is RA . In this figure, l is the
length of the truncated cone not the overall length. Also shown, for later
discussion, is a possible ``fin'' of length L, making an angle
with the missile axis.
However, we start with the simplest case, that of pointed conical warhead of length, l. and nose radius zero. The deceleration, Dp , can be calculated using the Newtonian model. Whether one uses elastic scattering of molecules or calculates the deceleration on the assumption that the component of momentum normal to the surface is lost, one finds that the deceleration is given by:
1)
Here
is the half-angle of the cone, l is the cone length, and
is the average density of the warhead or decoy. k is a constant
that is model dependent and is of no import in what follows.
Eq. 1 gives the basic scaling variable describing the deceleration. (Corrections to it due to rounded nose warheads are examined later.)
Since we wish to have small decoys, we must match the deceleration of
the warhead by making the decoy mean density higher. Since the average
density of a warhead, like the Mark 21, is small, it is possible to add
weight to the decoy, e.g., by using titanium inserts (with density = 19.3
),
to compensate for the smaller decoy length.
The effects of a finite radius nose on a cone warhead, do not scale
easily. The equations appear in the appendix, but some simple effects can
be seen by examinimg the drag, Dn , on a hemisphere alone,
i. e., l = 0. The force on the sphere is proportional to the cross sectional
area,
,
so that D=
,
is
.
Therefore
2)
Comparing 2) with 1) we see that the nose makes a very large contribution
to D compared with the rest of the cone, both because
is small and
.
Thus, using the same radius for the decoy and warhead noses increases the
decoy/warhead deceleration ratio. (If one wishes, however, to use identical
radii for the noses of the decoy and warhead, another possibility for matching
the drags can be employed. One could increase the drag of the warhead to
make it slow down and keep pace with a slowing decoy. Thus we examine the
possibility of modifying the warhead dynamically, perhaps as soon as it
enters the atmosphere, by deploying a thin fin, as shown by the insert
in Fig. 1. These can be designed to equalize the decelerations, as shown
in the appendix.)
It is also of interest to know whether the lifts, i.e. the accelerations normal to missile direction, are different for warhead and decoy. These differences are difficult for the radars to measure and lift is therefore not a sensitive tool to distinguish decoy from warhead. Nevertheless, we have examined the lift as well.
If the axis of the warhead is not identical with that of the trajectory,
the drag forces and transverse forces will vary with the access angle,
the angle between the missile axis and its trajectory. To ensure that this
variation will not allow one to distinguish decoy from warhead we have
calculated the variations with
in the material in the appendix. Meanwhile, it is instructive to examine
a simple geometry, the drag and lift for a flat area making an angle,
,
with the trajectory axis. The momentum transfer along that axis, as shown
in Fig. 2., is
.
while the momentum transfer normal to the trajectory axis is
.Integrating
these momentum transfers over the surfaces of the missiles modifies this
dependence somewhat. To a good approximation the lift is linear with
while the deceleration varies slightly more rapidly with
.
Our illustrative calculations have been carried out for a warhead with
the following dimensions, which are the dimensions of the Mark 21 re-entry
vehicle:
= 8.4 degrees, nose radius = 3.6 cm, warhead length = 1.72 meters. From
these dimensions and the warhead weight, the mean density of the warhead
is 0.7. We have used a warhead density of 1.0 and a decoy density of 7.2
in our calculations. The formulas in the appendix allow the reader to examine
other warhead parameters. Here we wish to give the most important features.
Because the missiles may enter the atmosphere making access angles relative
to their path that are not zero, we have calculated the decelerations vs
access angle to see if the relative decoy/warhead decelerations, Dd/Dw
, varied significantly with access angle. For a spherical object there
would be no access angle dependence, so, as the size of the spherical nose
of a missile increases, there will be less
dependence.
We first illustrate, in Fig. 3, a worst case scenario: small decoy,
one-tenth the length of the warhead and with the same nose radius. The
deceleration of the decoy is 16 times that of the warhead at zero access
angle, falling to 5 times at an access angle equal to the decoy opening
angle. (The reason for the falloff of the deceleration ratio at the largest
is that the circular nose drag force is essentially angle independent,
unlike the cone drag force which increases with
.
Thus the longer warhead increases its deceleration more than the shorter
decoy at large
.)
We next illustrate how the deceleration and lifts vary with access angle for a specific case of a small decoy, one-tenth the length of the warhead but with a nose radius of one quarter the warhead nose radius. We see again from Fig. 4 that the decelerations for both decay and warhead have essentially the same shape (For this case the deceleration of the decoy is 5 times the deceleration of the warhead at zero access angle dropping to 2.4 at the maximum access angle of 8.4 degrees.
Fig. 5 shows a plot of the lifts for the small nose case, illustrating
evidence for our remark that the lift should be linear with
.
Because the
dependences are not strong, it is sufficient to summarize the results by
plotting only the zero access data. Therefore, shown in Fig 6 are the plots
of Dd/Dw as a function of Rd/Rw
for different values of the length ratios,
ld/lw
.
As illustration, Fig 7 shows the decelerations for a 45 degree fin angle
and examines the fin length for a decoy body length ratio of ld/lw
= 0.1 . Note the excellent match at any
for L = 8.49 cm. For a longer length ratio of .15 the fin length drops
to 4.24 cm, and for a length ratio of .2 it drops to 2.12 cm.
Other protrusions of different shapes could also be considered, such as a series of small protrusions spaced around the rear of the warhead.
In our previous work we examined typical spiral antennas which lie in a plane and which had very large bandwidths, their antenna patterns being identical from 2 to 18 ghz. By accepting narrower frequency bands, say from 8-12 ghz, which bracket a typical 10 ghz radar frequency, one can make the antennas smaller and with a larger angular spread. Conical helix and spiral helix antennas represent other varieties that can easily be designed and manufactured. (4)
However, one can also mask the relative wobbles electronically by using the same technique (5) that was proposed for defeating autocorrelation methods. A simple analogue circuit could modulate the transponder signals with a frequency approximating typical nutation frequencies. In this way even missiles that do not nutate will appear to nutate so, once again, decoy and warhead will be indistinguishable.
The infrared emission from an object is determined by 1) its absolute temperature, 2) its emissivity, and 3) its radiating surface area. The rate at which it cools is determined by its heat capacity. Its heating on re-entry is determined by its surface materials.
Warheads can be cooled with liquid air to reduce the infrared emission. Our decoys are being slightly heated by the transponder amplifier. The designer, knowing the weight and material composition of decoy and warhead as well as the surface areas, can control the 1) surface materials, 2) the materials determining the mean density, and 3) the internal heating to match the infrared output over the missiles path. There are enough parameters to do so. Even here, the decoys would be made to have a variety of emissions, so there would be no decoy ``infra-red signature" that the defender can store and remember.
At the present writing, THAAD, the Theater High Altitude Missile Defense and PAC3, the endoatmospheric interceptor system, which have not been tested against traditional decoys, need also to be tested against the new electronic decoys that we have described. They are quite rudimentary, so a ``rogue'' nation, such as North Korea or Iraq, could easily deploy them. There is little merit in the argument that such simple decoys are too difficult to incorporate. In theater warfare the warhead range may often be larger than the distance to target so, throw weight may be not so important.
A. Calculating the Momentum Change
Figure 1 shows the geometry of a warhead, a solid cone with a rounded
nose. The nose radius is RN and the radius of the rear
of the cone is RC . The cone angle is
and the rounded nose joins smoothly to the cone. At that point the radius
of the sphere section is RA . Shown in the insert is
a possible circular fin of length L.
We will first study zero degree access angle.
The change in momentum along the trajectory direction of a molecule reflected ``optically'' from the conical surface is.
1)
Since the cross sectional area of the cone is (
),
the total momentum transfer to the cone section is:
2)
or
2')
where
For
we obtain the scaling result of equation 1.
To determine the change in momentum due to reflection off the spherical
nose one has to integrate over all the incident angles up to
.
Thus we need to calculate:
3)
So the final result for the nose is:
4)
Since for real warheads
,
we used this approximation in obtaining Eq. 2. of section II.
The result for the complete warhead can be rewritten in terms of the
ratio,
,
as:
5)
This result in this form is well known (6)
B) Calculating the Drag Force, F, and the Deceleration, D
The force is the change in momentum per unit time, so:
6)
Here dA and dl are infinitesimal regions defining the volume of
the gas,
is the momentum, and dl/dt is the velocity of the gas relative to the cone
and
is the air density.
Thus the deceleration, D, is:
7) D =
where V is the volume of the missile and
is its mean density.
Since the volume of the truncated cone is:
8)
where l is the length of the truncated conical section and the volume of the nose is:
9)
The final formula for the deceleration is:
10) ![]()
is the air density and
is the mean missile density.
C. The Pointed Cone
Setting Rn = 0 in eq. 10, we regain the simple formula:
11) ![]()
This scaling formula tells us the main features of the design of a decoy with the same drag as the warhead. We must compensate for the smaller length of the decoy by using a larger density and a smaller cone angle. It is best to try for the largest density since reducing the cone angle of the decoy reduces the volume into which the transponder must fit.
12) D =
or, alternately:
12') D =
13)
It is useful to note that d is only a function of the relative
angles
and
and not a function of any of the other parameters of the missile. When
the last term in D is negligible, D will then have the same
dependence for any Rn .
Some useful approximations: Setting
=1 and neglecting
relative to 1:
14) D =
Since Rn is small and less than l, we can neglect
the last term in the denominator and
in the last numerator term. defining
,
we obtain:
15) D =
Since
to a good approximation we can write
to obtain:
16) D =
We can examine
in the limit of
to see whether it reduces to the proper scaling function for
= 0. Thus 13) becomes:
17)
and finally
18)
which is the approximate nose-modified scaling function for D
We have not been able to find any simple approximation so we must evaluate
the
integral
numerically.
We now turn to the formula for the lift, L.
21) L =
In this case, for all values, the lift, L, is the product of a missile
shape factor and a function,
,
which is only a function of
and
.
22)
The first term can be neglected and setting the cos terms equal to unity we have:
23)
Thus we see that the lift will be linear with
.
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank the Research Foundation, the Science and Technology Wing, and the Physics Department, all of the University of Pennsylvania, for partial support of this effort.
Figure 1: Parameters of a truncated cone with rounded nose. The insert shows the parameters of a possible circular ``fin''.

Figure 2: Scattering from an Area Element. The component of momentum
transfer along the missile direction and that perpendicular to the missile
direction are shown. They depend differently on the power of the angular
deflections. The drag force is proportional to
while the lift force is proportional to
.For
small angles the ratio of Drag to lift forces increases with
.

Figure 3: Equal nose radii: smallest decoy, one-tenth the length of the warhead; worst case.

Figure 4: For smaller Rd/Rw
= 1/4, the deceleration is reduced to 5. at
= 0, and 2.4 at maximum
.

Figure 5: Lift acceleration for the previous figure. The lift difference is smaller for the smaller nose and the decoy lift is,in this case, larger than the lift of the warhead by a ratio of 1.1.

Figure 6: Ratio of decoy to warhead deceleration as a function of decoy nose radius for various length decoys

Figure 7: Anti-Simulation. Use of fin on the warhead to match the deceleration for a small length decoy ld/lw = 1/3 and a non-zero nose radius.

Figure 8: Parameters for a tilted warhead of opening angle
and access angle
.
The rounded nose is not shown.
