Missile defense systems must increase their target discrimination capabilities by using advanced seekers and seeker image processing. The objective of the proposed effort is to provide the advanced SPAR-X signal processing work already underway at Lockheed Martin Sunnyvale to the THAAD next generation avionics development. In addition to THAAD, the MKV program is including scaled down SPAR-X on the Kill Vehicle Mission Processor. The developed system would also be directly applicable to the MKV Carrier Vehicle and other MDA/GMD missile defense systems with advanced strap down seekers. The goal of the proposed effort is to build on the work that has a great deal of functionality but is targeted at a generation of FPGAs that is much less capable than todays offerings. The end result of the proposed effort is a baseline design that ports the Xilinx Virtex-2 based SPAR-X to a Xilinx Virtex-4 (and potentially Virtex-5 or SIRF) with an approach for a more capable, lower power, and highly integrated solution. This would allow a more producible next generation THAAD, MKV Kill Vehicle Mission Processor and provide for future growth in using the SPAR-X system on MKV Carrier Vehicle and other strap down seeker signal processing systems.
Keywords: Advanced Seeker, Signal Processing, Systolic Array Processor, Massively Parallel, Image Stabilization, Xilinx Virtex-4 Fpga, Integrated Avionics
