10th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations (ATIO) Conference AIAA 2010-9114

13 - 15 September 2010, Fort Worth, Texas

Tactical Missile Design at

The Naval Postgraduate School
Christopher M. Brophy 1

Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA 93943

A Tactical Missile Track has been an available academic track at The Naval
Postgraduate School for nearly three decades. The coursework associated with the track can
be taken over a one-year period leading to a masters degree in Mechanical and Aerospace
engineering and culminates with tactical missile design as the capstone course. The
capstone design course often includes the participation of an industry representative to
provide the students with a real-world “system integration” point of view and advise the
students throughout the design process. The coursework leading up to the design course
consists of fundamental “core” courses that apply to nearly all missile systems as well as a
wide range of technical electives ranging from campaign analysis to warhead design and
effectiveness. A brief history of the Tactical Missile Track is provided and details associated
with the available electives are also presented and discussed to show some of the unique
feature of Tactical Missile Design at The Naval Postgraduate School. Finally, examples of
past design efforts are also presented.

I. Introduction
The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is located in Monterey, California and consists of four graduate schools
which are the Graduate School of Business and Public Policy (GSBPP), Graduate School of Operational and
Information Sciences (GSOIS), Graduate School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (GSEAS), and the School of
International Graduate Studies (SIGS). The majority of the courses related to missile systems exist within the
Graduate School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, but some courses such as Campaign Analysis, Test and
Evaluation, and Defensive Engineering Analysis and Cost Estimation exist in both GSBPP and GSOIS. The School
of International Graduate Studies is the source of foreign national student participation in the missile track, as
permitted.
The Tactical Missile Track began in the 1980’s and resided within the Aeronautics and Astronautics1 department
until 2002. In 2002, the Aeronautics and Astronautics department was closed due to a Memorandum Of
Understanding (MOU) between the Secretaries of the Air Force and Navy and a large portion of the aerodynamic
coursework relocated to the Air Force Institute of Technology. The tactical missile program was preserved by what
is now the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) department at NPS. Over the past 8 years, the MAE
department has made an effort to improve the flexibility of the track and promote a wider range of subspecialty areas
within the missile track experience. This has allowed students to take a portion of their courses outside the
department while still meeting the MSAE or MSME degree requirements. The MS degree in Aerospace
Engineering (or Mechanical Engineering) requires a minimum 48 quarter credit hours. Of the required 48 total
QCH, 32 Quarter Credit Hours(QCH) must be at the 3000/4000 course level, 12 of the 32 QCH must be at the 4000
level, and 24 of the total QCH must be within the MAE department. The minimum amount of thesis activity is 16
QCH of the total 48 QCH requirement.
The Tactical Missile Design course exists as the capstone course of the Tactical Missile Track program. The
design course is taken after a series of fundamental technology courses which introduce students to physics related
to missile operation and ultimately to how a missile system design is approached and achieved. The primary course
sequence taken by students is Missile Aerodynamics, Missile Guidance and Control, Tactical Missile Propulsion,
and finally Tactical Missile Design. Students have historically been officers from either the Navy or Air Force who
were assigned to NPS for graduate education with the goal of obtaining an MS degree in Mechanical and
Astronautical Engineering, although periodically some of the students enrolled in the missile track sequence have

1
Associate Professor, Mechanical and Astronautical Engineering, Code ME-BR, AIAA Senior Member

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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
This material is declared a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States.
been part of the Combat Weapons Systems curriculum and obtained a MS in Physics. As mentioned earlier, a
portion of the student body enrolled in the missile track courses are from countries who have agreements with the
US State Department, the Navy International Program Office (NIPO), and NPS. More recently, US civilians have
enrolled in the track through various scholarship and fellowship programs. As the interest and enrollment of US
civilian students (and contractors) increases, the addition of alternate perspectives, contributions, and organizational
needs should improve the design experience of those enrolled in the track.

II. Tactical Missile Track Coursework

The Tactical Missile Track follows a prescribed set of core courses in the fundamental technology areas of
missile design and analysis. These courses are taken over a one year time frame and include Missile Aerodynamics,
Missile Guidance and Control, Missile Propulsion, and Tactical Missile Design. Over the course of a 12-24 month
degree program, students are also encouraged to enroll in courses that supplement the core track courses and add to
the collective expertise of a particular design group year. The promoted flexibility of coursework is intended to
broaden the student exposure to other scientific areas which affect missile design with the intention of improving the
system design educational experience2. The various electives are imbedded within their course matrices as long as
they continue to fulfill department degree requirements. The representative program officer and academic associate
are tasked with monitoring student matrices to insure these requirements are met. Table 1 lists both the core missile
track courses and a collection of other courses also available to the students, although not all courses are listed.
Additional courses and descriptions can be found in the course catalog which is found online at the following NPS
website http://www.nps.edu/Academics/GeneralCatalog.

Table 1: Core and Elective Courses

Core Courses: Credit Offered
ME3205 Missile Aerodynamics 4-1 Spring
AE4452 Tactical Missile Propulsion 4-1 As Req.
EC4340 Missile Guidance and Control 3-2 Spring
ME4704 Tactical Missile Design 3-2 Win/Sum

Alternative Specialization Courses: Credit Offered

ME4700 Weaponeering 3-2 Spring
ME4702 Engineering Systems Risk Benefit Analysis 3-2 As Req.
ME4751 Combat Survivability, Reliability, and System Safety 4-1 Spring
PC3172 Physics of Weapon Systems; Fluid Dynamics of 4-2 Win/Sum
Weapons; Shock Waves; Explosions
Weapons PC3800 Survey of the Effects of Weapons (SE3800) 4-0 Win/Sum
PC4860 Advanced Weapon Concepts 4-1 Spr/Fall
PH4171 Physics of Explosives 4-0 Summer
PH4857 Physics of High Velocity Impact, Weapon Lethality, 4-0 Summer
and Survivability
PH4911 Simulation of Physical and Weapon Systems 3-2 Winter
ME3801 Autonomous Systems and Vehicle Control I 3-2 Spring
Controls ME4811 Autonomous Systems and Vehicle Control II 3-2 Fall
ME4821 Marine Navigation 3-2 Spring
ME4823 Dynamics of Autonomous Vehicles 4-0 Winter
ME3150 Heat Transfer 4-1 Win/Sum
ME3201 Applied Fluid Mechanics 4-1 Win/Sum
ME3240 Marine Power and Propulsion 4-2 Win/Sum
Thermal/Fluids ME3450 Computational Methods in Mechanical Engineering 3-2 Fall/Spr
ME4162 Convection Heat Transfer 4-0 Fall
ME4220 Viscous Flow 4-0 Summer
ME4225 CFD and Heat Transfer 3-2 Summer
ME3521 Mechanical Vibrations 3-2 Win/Sum
ME3611 Mechanics of Solids 4-0 Spr/Fall
ME4522 Finite Element Methods in Structural Dynamics 4-0 As Req.
Structural/Vibration ME4525 Naval Ship Shock Design and Analysis 4-0 As Req.
ME4550 Random Vibrations and Spectral Analysis 3-2 As Req.
ME4612 Advanced Mechanics of Solids 4-0 Winter
ME4613 Finite Element Methods 4-0 Fall
OA4602 Joint Campaign Analysis 4-0 Win/Sum
OA4603 Test and Evaluation 4-0 Win/Sum
Others SE3112 Combat System Engineering 3-2
SE3123 Naval Weapons System Testing 3-2 Spr/Fall
SE4353 Risk Analysis and Management for Engineering System 3-2 Spr/Fall

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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
A typical matrix of courses for a 12-month program is shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Typical Course Matrix for a Tactical Missile Track Student

Quarter Course#1 Course#2 Course#3 Course#4

ME3205 ME3450 SE4353 PH3204

Fall Missile Aerodynamics Computational Risk Analysis and Electro-Optic
Methods Management Principles/Devices

AE4452 ME3150 ME4823 PH3172

Winter Missile Propulsion Heat Transfer Dynamics of Physics of Weapon
Autonomous Systems
Vehicles

Spring EC4340 ME4700 Thesis Thesis

Missile Guidance and Weaponeering
Control

ME4704 ME4225 Thesis Thesis

Summer Tactical Missile Design Computational Fluid
Dynamics

An important comment to make regarding the core courses listed above it that they do contain the word “missile”
in their title. Although all the topics are applicable to flight systems, missiles are unique in that they are not
reusable and often require a different viewpoint of the same subject matter. For example, a greater emphasis on
non-linear aerodynamics than aircraft systems, the increased maneuverability and agility requirements, autopilot
sensor/seeker integration, alternative propulsion subsystems, warhead lethality and miss distance, different guidance
and control laws/issues, and optimized trajectory analysis. The propulsion and payload packaging/mass fraction
requirements are also widely different from conventional manned systems. These differences can be significant and
will often drive a design toward a more unique solution for a given set of technical requirements. The associated
coursework for a tactical missile program will therefore have unique features and requirments that may not be
addressed in a conventional aircraft system design exercise.

III. Tactical Missile Design

The capstone course in the Tactical Missile Track at NPS is the Missile Design course, ME4704, and the size of
a particular design team is approximately 8 students. As mentioned earlier, the missile design project is derived
from either Technical Requirements (TR) from DoD discussions, both Air Force and Navy, and/or AIAA graduate
missile design competition3 Requests For Proposals (RFP), past and present. The RFP is typically introduced
during the third quarter of the missile track when Missile Guidance and Control is offered. This allows the students
to become familiar with the design project earlier, ask questions, develop a preliminary Concept of Operations
(CONOPS) for a proposed system, and begin to structure the design team so that the following quarter they can
maximize their productivity during the design class. An example of a student-generated CONOPS is shown in
Figure 1 and a typical team structure in Figure 2.
Once the team structure is formed at the beginning of the design quarter, the design course runs for 11 weeks
which often allows for only two design iterations. Although it is a fast-paced design window, students are often well
prepared and deliver a substantial product at the end of the process. The use of GANTT charts during weekly
meetings and throughout the entire project help both the students and advising faculty to insure that the project
proceeds as planned and the firm delivery date for the final report is met. An example of a previous design effort
timeline is shown in Figure 3 and provides a representative idea of the pace and milestones for a design exercise.
Subtasks are not shown due to space limitations.

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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
 Figure 1: Concept of Operations from Previous Design Year

Missile
Design

System Weight and

Integrator Balance

Aerodynamics Missile Warhead Guidance,

Structure Control &
Power

Air Inlet Pulse Booster

Detonation
Engine

Fuel & Shock Tube

Cooling System
System

Figure 2: Team Structure Example (8 Students)

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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Figure 3: Representative Timeline and Milestones for Design Class

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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
 Numerous textbooks are recommended as references4-7 for the course which supplement existing lectures on
Quality Functional Deployment (QFD) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Students are required to utilize
either of these analysis tools and ranking tools are required for each subsystem analysis. The use of AHP has
increased in recent years due to the availability of software to not only assist the designers in the available trade
space, but also flow down the subsystem analysis to the final design. Students are required to apply QFD or AHP
analysis to each of the major missile subsystems and justify design decisions, which involve not only the technical
trade space but also lifetime cost analysis and how such metrics apply to both mission effectiveness and operational
aspects in possible joint military scenarios. An example of how past students in the program have applied QFD to
the structural design aspects of a missile system is shown in Figure 4.

Students are provided numerous tools for the design and analysis efforts during the design project. These
include Solidworks for solid modeling (Figure 5), ANSYS for finite-element modeling and computational fluid
mechanics, CFD++, AP05 for aerodynamic prediction and 6DOF modeling, CEQUEL for combustion analysis,
Autodyne for warhead performance, and their own GNC software written in Matlab during their coursework. The
simulations of various engagement scenarios is modeled in Matlab code and the Autodyne simulations of the
warhead detonations (unless kinetic kill) are then superimposed at a prescribed location to minimize the CEP.
As a design begins to take shape, simulations can begin which often assume a predicted performance for each
subsystem. The simulations of the various designs evolve during the design course, improving fidelity as design
decisions are made, gradually accounting for an increasing number of parameters. The simulations initially only
model the propulsive, aerodynamic, and structure forces acting on the missile body and eventually include the
seeker/guidance update rates on the autopilot system. The warhead effectiveness is the one of the few subsystems
which is allowed to be “superimposed” on the final simulation.

Engineering Requirement Materials

1 – Most Important

Operating Temperature

Operating Temperature
5 – Least Important
Maximum allowable

Maximum External

Aluminum & Steel

Internal Maximum
• - Suitable Property
Mounting bracket

G load capability
Surface Coating

Yield Strength

Aluminum
Wingspan

deflection
Diameter

Titanium
Weight
Length

CG Position 5 5 1 5 •
Mounting on UCAV 3 3 3 3 3 5 5
Missile Operating

Engagement Distance 5 5 5 3 5 5 • •
Requirement

Engagement Velocity 5 3 3 3 1 5 • •
High Altitude 5 3 5 5
Maneuverability 3 3 1 1 1 1 1
Structural Integrity 5 5 5 3 1 1 1 3 3 •
Storage-ability 5 5 5 5 3
Cost 5 5 3 1 3 3 •
kg

Pa
m

m
m
m
m
m
G

Units
1

4
3.6576

0.2540

0.5588

385.55

100

623
0.1

20

25

Figure 4: Example of Quality Functional Deployment for Structural Selection

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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Although the initial modeling of the given system begins with block diagrams and group discussion of practical and
acceptable parameters, the modeling of guidance and control of a proposed system moves from a detail level seen in
Figure 6 to a continually improving Simulink model shown in Figure 7. Various intercept scenarios from the final
simulation model are then shown in Figure 8. Some of the design project efforts over the last few years are listed
below. The design reports for each of the efforts are available by request through the Department of Mechanical and
Aerospace engineering.

Previous Missile Design Projects:

Year Topic
2005 Air-Launched Supersonic Cruise Missile
2006 UAV-Launched Anti-Theater Ballistic Missile
2007 Railgun Launched Anti-Cruise Missile Munition
2008 Small-Scale UCAV Launched Air-To-Ground Missile
2009 Pulse Detonation Engine Powered Supersonic Cruise Missile

Figure 5: Solid Modeling of Divert Thrusters w/Jet Vane Flow Field Simulation

Figure 6: Preliminary GNC Control Loop ( Weeks 3-4 )

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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
 Figure 7: Evolved GNC Control Loop with Variable Engagement Conditions

Offset Frontal Intercept

3D trajectory plots 3D miss distance
plot of 3D PN Intercept trajectory 5 plot of 3D PN intercept miss distance (m) against time (sec)
x 10
2.5
Miss Distance

2
30

25
Miss Distance [m]

1.5
20

15
Z [Km]

10 1

0 300 0.5
-5 200
X: 158.1
0
50 100 100 Y: 10.81
150 200 0
250 Y [Km] 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
300
0
time [sec]
X [Km]

Figure 8: Final Intercept Scenarios for GNC Model (Variable Engagement Conditions)

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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
 IV. Summary
Tactical missile design is an integral part of the Tactical Missile Track at NPS and applies many aspects of
systems engineering to challenging real world problems that are often highly constrained. The inherent
requirements of a tactical missile system demands a broad understanding of many different disciplines while often
simultaneously requiring expertise in particular area(s). The NPS Tactical Missile Track promotes a diverse
exposure to a wide range of applicable disciplines through electives while also requiring that core missile
technologies be understood by all team members. After a minimum of three academic quarters of coursework, a
student design team is able to interpret technical requirements and apply a broad spectrum of knowledge, tools, and
analysis to arrive at a design of a tactical missile system that meets the specified mission requirements provided at
the beginning of their design experience. It is expected that recent efforts to revive the AIAA Graduate Missile
Design competition will allow NPS design teams to compete with other schools on a national level. This should
reveal areas which need further emphasis and demonstrate how the level of design fidelity in the NPS program
compares with other missile design curricula at other graduate institutions nationwide. Ultimately, some of the
students who complete the missile track will eventually be government representatives for current and proposed
missile systems. Hopefully, students who participate on such an effort will provide an appropriate and useful
perspective for successfully managing and developing future weapon systems.

References
1
Platzer, M., Bell, B., and Schmidt, L., “Aerospace Engineering Education at the Naval Postgraduate School,”
41ST Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Paper No. 2003-237, Reno, Nevada, 2003.
2
Newberry, C.F., “Aerospace Design Education (Primarily) at the Graduate Level,” 31st Aerospace Sciences
Meeting and Exhibit, Paper No. 93-0329, Reno, NV, 1993.
3
Newberry, C.F., Gouhin, P., and Rutherford, J.W., “AIAA Graduate Design Competitions,” 32nd Aerospace
Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Paper No. 94-0863, Reno, NV, 1994.
4
Fleeman, G., Tactical Missile Design 2nd Edition, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, ISBN
1-56347-782-3, 2006.
5
Horenstein, M., Design Concepts for Engineers, 4th Ed., Prentice Hall, ISBN 13: 9780136069553, 2009.
6
Hyman, B., Fundamentals of Engineering Design, 2nd Ed. , Prentice Hall, ISBN 13: 9780130467126
7
Voland, G., Engineering by Design, Addison Wesley, ISBN 13: 9780131409194, 2004.

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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics