Guidance Kit for Non-Guided Artillery Shells
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Solution Overview
Problem
Air-to-ground guided explosive charges are complex and costly due to their sophisticated guiding systems, making them overqualified for specific tasks and requiring a more affordable and convenient solution for transforming non-guided explosive charges into guided airborne charges.
Innovation Solution
A kit is developed that couples with a non-guided artillery shell, providing means to attach and detach it from an aircraft, change its trajectory using movable flaps actuated by a servo mechanism, and determine its position using GPS, enabling transformation into a guided airborne shell without altering the shell's mechanism or inner parts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If sophisticated guided systems are used in air-to-ground explosive charges, then guidance precision is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention divides the guidance system into separate modular components: a guiding kit that can be attached to standard artillery shells. This segmentation allows the shell and guidance system to be produced independently using standard manufacturing processes, then assembled into a functional guided munition, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining guidance precision through specialized guidance modules.
Solution Approach 2:
The guiding kit is designed as a universal platform that can be attached to various types of standard artillery shells (155mm, mortar shells, etc.). This multi-functionality allows a single guidance system design to work with multiple shell types, reducing the need for specialized sophisticated guidance systems for each shell type, thereby lowering complexity and cost while maintaining precision.
2Measurement precision
If sophisticated guided systems are used in air-to-ground explosive charges, then guidance precision is improved, but cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the system into standard off-the-shelf artillery shells and separate guidance kits, the invention enables mass production of inexpensive shells while guidance kits can be produced in smaller quantities with specialized components. This segmentation dramatically reduces cost compared to manufacturing entirely new sophisticated guided munitions, while maintaining guidance precision through dedicated guidance modules.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention utilizes standard artillery shells as disposable platforms that can be mass-produced at low cost. Rather than investing in expensive, highly sophisticated guided systems, the approach uses inexpensive shells combined with relatively simple guidance kits, achieving cost-effective guidance precision through the disposability and mass-producibility of the shell component.
3Ease of manufacture
If standard artillery shells are transformed into guided airborne charges, then cost is reduced, but adaptability to different delivery platforms is challenged
Solution Approach 1:
The guiding kit incorporates universal attachment mechanisms and interface standards that enable the same kit design to be mounted on various types of artillery shells and adapted to different delivery platforms including ground artillery, mortars, and airborne delivery systems. This universality maintains adaptability while using standardized, cost-effective shell and kit combinations.
Solution Approach 2:
The guidance system includes adjustable and reconfigurable components that can be dynamically adapted to different shell types and delivery platforms. The kit can be configured for different mission requirements and platform characteristics, maintaining versatility through dynamic reconfiguration rather than requiring completely different systems for each platform.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution allows for the conversion of simple, inexpensive artillery shells into guided airborne shells, offering precise targeting and substantial cost and practical advantages by utilizing existing, mass-produced non-guided shells, thereby reducing complexity and cost while enhancing their functionality.
Implementation Method 1
means for causing the trajectory of the shell to change once detached from the aircraft according to instructions received in the kit
Implementation Method 2
the means for determining the position of the shell comprise a GPS system
Data Source
AI summary
A kit for upgrading a non-guided shell to an airborne guided shell includes a device to couple the kit to the body of the non-guided shell. A fastener provides for fastening the resulting airborne shell to an aircraft and for detaching it there from. The kit also provides for causing the trajectory of the shell to change once detached from the aircraft according to instructions received in the kit; for determining the position of the shell; and for transferring data from the carrying platform to the guidance kit.