Correction Strategy of Online Midcourse Guidance for High-Speed Gliding Target Interceptor

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper is well written and the content well exposed. 

I have only some suggestions on the style of the paper. Below my comments:

1 - in the correspondence section please add the contacts emails.

2 - In the introduction, please add some figures to explain better the problem. This can improve the readability of the paper. 

3 - the THPEA acronym is not defined the first time when appears in the text.

4 - In section 2, the assumption used for the development of the work must be better justified. Also, a figure who represents the model following the equations can be added. 

5 - In the same section the Jacchia-Roberts model is used. Please add the reference to this model and justify why the authors use this. If this is a canonical model please explain it. 

6 - The conclusions are too short. A comparison with the literature can be added for comparing the results with other works. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

1.      Abstract need a cleanup and overall the English of the whole article should be improved.

2.      The introduction of the problem in section #1 should be expanded to give a better background about the problem you’re gonna tackle (while the part about different solutions is fine).

3.      A description of article sections near the end of introduction is advisable.

4.      Reference systems and coordinates must be introduced

5.      The Jacchia-Roberts should be referenced

6.      There are some misspells, for example at line 202/203

7.      I think a couple of illustrations in section #2 is definitely needed

8.      Please check PIP position calculation explanation (lines 276/291) which are a bit messy, also I think “moment” should rather be “instant”.

9.      Normality of the target position should be sourced

1.   In simulations, the target absolute coordinates are useless, it’s better to plot the distance/error for each coordinate

1.   Computation times are provided as aggregate, but an evaluation of algorithm ability to satisfy time constraints should be performed

1.   What about simulation architecture?

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

General comments:

This paper discusses the design of an online correction strategy for high-speed gliding target interceptor during mid-course guidance. In the strategy, Lambert guidance method was employed to resolve the engine start direction. The mid-course guidance correction strategy is developed. The simulation results demonstrates that the proposed strategy can meet the accuracy requirements with higher fuel efficiency. Overall speaking, the paper is well-organized and the writing is solid.

I would authors address the comments before considering the acceptance.

 

Technical comments:

1) A nomenclature is suggested given many symbols are used.

2) I would suggest the author provide a diagram to visualize the developed strategy because it contains several methods. A diagram would facilitate the readers to articulating the methods used.

3) How did the author consider the computing speed of the proposed correction strategy? The authors should give more explanation on Table 1 if this shows the computing time. At the same time, did the authors compare the computing speed performance with other strategies?

4) I suggested the authors discuss the limitation and the future direction.

5) Section 4.2, how did the authors determine the starting threshold as 20m/s? Did the authors select and compare the results from other thresholds?

6) I do not see the quantitative results on the fuel saving capabilities.

 

Minor comments:

1) Editorial: line 410 of page 12. Add “where” in front of the sentence “?1 is the engine start threshold in the first half stage …”.

2) Editorial: Titles 3.4, 4.2 to 4.3 should be aligned to other titles.

3) Line 120 in page 3: in a large range should be changed to “in a wide range”

4) Editorial: Line 42 in page 1, I would suggest re-write the sentence of “The PIP at one moment may differ significantly from that …”. The sentence is too long to be followed.

5) Editorial: Line 109 in page 3, past tense should be used, i.e., “attempted…, could not…”

6) Editorial: the title which includes “Lambert”, the first letter should be capitalized.

7) In all notations of the equations, “where” should be aligned to the left of the paragraph.

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Just a bit more grammar clean-up and I'm fine

Author Response

Response to Comments

We would like to express our gratitude to the reviewers and editors for their time and effort in reviewing the manuscript. We have carefully considered all the comments and revised the manuscript accordingly. The major changes can be found in the revised version titled “applsci-2343711 (Modify draft)”.

Response to Reviewer

Specific Comments:

Comment: Just a bit more grammar clean-up and I'm fine.

Response: Thank you for your suggestion. The main changes we have made are as follows:

(1) We have further revised our abstract, which we hope will be more grammatically correct and more clearly expressed. The revised summary is:

During the interception of a high-speed gliding vehicle (HGV), the predicted intercept point (PIP) is updated many times, so the interceptor must continuously adjust its trajectory. In this paper, we propose an online guidance correction algorithm for the interceptor, which can effectively meet the position constraints and energy management of the guidance process. Firstly, we simplify the interceptor's maneuvering problem to a two-body orbital transfer problem. The Lambert orbit transfer method is used to enable the interceptor to maneuver towards the target's PIP. Secondly, by comparing the target's high probability existence area (THPEA) with the interceptor interceptable area (IIA), the engine start threshold is set in stages to avoid frequent redundancy maneuvers caused by frequent engine start during missile correction. This approach achieves energy management. Simulation results show that our midcourse guidance strategy is effective.

(2) In addition to the abstract, we have further checked and revised the grammar and tenses in the text, and as there are many changes, the details can be seen in the revised draft.

Thank you for your valuable suggestions, which are vital for us to improve our thesis. We hope our revised manuscript is satisfactory!

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf