WO2026005740A1 - Missile using energy source charged in the launcher - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a missile system (100) that consists of a missile (120) that is charged before launch and instead of a thermal battery, has an optimised energy source (130) with a voltage boost circuit (132) and voltage buck circuit (133), and launcher (110) containing power unit (113) to charge/discharge energy source (130) in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

Description

MISSILE USING ENERGY SOURCE CHARGED IN THE LAUNCHER

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a missile system consisting of missile contains an energy storage battery that is charged before launch instead of a thermal battery and optimised with voltage converter circuits and a launcher containing circuits to charge/discharge the energy storage battery, to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

State of the Art

Missiles are weapons that are launched from the air, land or sea to reach their target, usually carrying an explosive load. Missiles usually follow a programmed path towards the target and hit the target. Although missiles are generally used for military purposes, they are also used in space research and scientific studies. Missiles can also be used as a defence system against air defence systems. State-of-the-art missiles have the ability to hit the target very precisely and play an important role in military strategies. Thermal batteries are widely used in missile control and guidance systems. These batteries produce the electrical energy necessary to start the missile engine and ensure that the missile is directed towards its target.

Thermal batteries have the ability to operate reliably by means of the special chemicals they contain. In addition, thermal batteries are a durable and reliable energy source suitable for long-term use. By using thermal batteries in missiles, targets can be reached with longer ranges and more effectively. These batteries ensure that missiles advance towards targets accurately and reliably and that the target is effectively hit.

Today, many studies have been conducted on providing power to missile systems and new systems have been developed. One of these studies is the invention that is the subject of the patent application number W020081 12012A3. Said invention generally relates to systems and methods for providing electrical power using supercapacitors. In the method of the invention, power and data are transferred between at least one modified Hydra 70 type guided rocket positioned within the launch body and activated before launch and the launch vehicle. Power is stored in at least one supercapacitor within the rocket. The invention uses only a supercapacitor as an energy source and does not include any structure or system that provides efficiency in energy management. The invention does not mention the existence of any circuit that increases or decreases voltage in order to use the maximum amount of energy in energy storage products, or increases or decreases voltage depending on the changing conditions during flight. With this situation, the patent has significant efficiency and security gaps since there is no optimisation during charging or discharging of the energy storage unit in the event of aborted firing.

As a result, the need for a rechargeable missile system that eliminates the disadvantages in the state of the art and the inadequacy of the current solutions have made it necessary to make a development in the relevant technical field.

Brief Description of the Invention

The present invention relates to a missile system consisting of missile contains an energy storage battery that is charged before launch instead of a thermal battery and optimised with voltage converter circuits and a launcher containing circuits to charge/discharge the energy storage battery, to reduce costs and increase efficiency, which meets the above-mentioned requirements, eliminates all disadvantages and brings some additional advantages.

Based on the state of the art, the aim of the invention is to use different solutions optimised with voltage converter circuits for energy storage in addition to the supercapacitor in the developed rechargeable missile and to increase security with charging and discharging methods.

The aim of the invention is to increase the missile efficiency by means of optimisation while reducing the cost. Another aim of the invention is to provide an easily accessible, low-cost and easily producible solution by means of the use of an energy storage battery optimised with voltage converter circuits instead of a thermal battery.

Another aim of the invention is to provide high energy efficiency by means of the efficient use of the voltage of the energy storage unit used in the missile and the rapid charging of the energy storage unit via the missile launcher system.

Another aim of the invention is to ensure safety by discharging the energy of the energy storage unit in the missile in case the shot is cancelled.

The structural and characteristic features and all the advantages of the invention will be understood more clearly by means of the figures given below and the detailed description written with references to these figures, and therefore the evaluation should be made by taking these figures and the detailed explanation into consideration.

Brief Description of Drawings

In order to for the embodiment of the present invention and its advantages with additional elements to be understood in the best way, it should be evaluated together with the figures described below.

Figure-1 is the schematic general view of the connection diagram of the chargeable/dischargeable missile system which is the subject of the invention.

Reference Numbers

100. Missile system

1 10. Launcher

1 1 1. Control

1 12. Communication

1 13. Power unit

1 14. Umbilical cable

120. Missile 121 . Missile Computer

130. Energy source

131 . Energy storage unit

132. Voltage boost circuit

133. Voltage buck circuit

134. Voltage conversion circuit

Detailed Description of the Invention

In this detailed description, the missile system (100) that consists of a missile (120) that is charged before launch and instead of a thermal battery, has an optimised energy source (130) with a voltage boost circuit (132) and voltage buck circuit (133), and launcher (1 10) containing power unit (1 13) to charge/discharge energy source (130) in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency, is explained only as an example for a better understanding of the subject and in a way that does not create any limiting effect.

In the missile system (100) shown in Figure-1 , which is the subject of the invention, battery, capacitor, supercapacitor and hybrid capacitor are used as energy source (130). The missile system (100) also comprises a voltage boost circuit (132), voltage buck circuit (133) or voltage conversion circuit (134) depending on the changing conditions during the flight in order to use the stored energy at maximum rate. The missile system (100), which is the subject of the invention, eliminates the security gap by discharging the energy storage unit (131 ) in the energy source (130) in case of aborted launch. Said missile system (100) basically consists of a missile (120) carrying an explosive head for the destruction or damage of the determined target by remote control and a launcher (1 10) which fires the missile (120). Said launcher (1 10) comprises a control (1 1 1 ) for launching the missile (120), communication (1 12) and power unit (1 13) for charging or discharging the missile (120). Said missile (120) comprises a missile computer (121 ) that is in communication with the control (1 1 1 ) located in the launcher (1 10) and enables the missile (120) to be directed to the target, and an energy source (130) to provide the electrical energy needed by the missile (120) to reach the specified target. Said communication (1 12) is connected to the missile computer (121 ) located in the missile (120) via the umbilical cable (114) and the power unit (1 13) is connected to the energy source (130) located in the missile (120) via the umbilical cable (114). Said energy source (130) comprises an energy storage unit (131 ) and a conversion circuit (134). Said conversion circuit (134) comprises a voltage boost circuit (132) and a voltage buck circuit (133). Said energy storage unit (131 ) is connected to the voltage boost circuit (132) and voltage buck circuit (133) gathered under the conversion circuit (134). The current, voltage, power and similar electrical requirements in the energy storage unit (131 ) and conversion circuit (134) vary according to the needs of the missile system (100).

For the application of said missile system (100), calculations must be made according to the needs of the missile system (100) in three areas: selection of the energy storage unit (131 ), selection of the conversion circuit (134), and charge and discharge current and voltage value. When selecting the energy storage unit (131 ), the calculations should be made in a way that will provide the voltage, current, power and energy requirements of the electrical/electronic components used on the missile (120) and the solution with the highest possible voltage should be selected.

According to the type of energy storage unit (131 ) selected for the missile (120) charging solution; current and voltage values should be calculated. In order to shorten the preparation time for the launch in these calculations; the upper limit values of the voltage and current capacities of the power unit (1 13), and umbilical cable (114) located in the launcher (1 10) and the energy storage unit (131 ) located in the missile (120) should be selected. The characteristics of said energy storage unit (131 ), power unit (1 13) and umbilical cable (1 14) units should be evaluated together and the most suitable solution should be found with more than one optimisation process by applying design changes. For example, in case a supercapacitor is selected as the energy storage unit (131 ), this means charging the capacitor with the maximum constant current it can withstand and stopping the charge at the maximum voltage value it can withstand, and using it for the shortest time for charging.

After energy storage unit (131 ) is charged before launching, in case the missile (120) launch operation is abandoned due to a reason such as mission cancellation or malfunction, the power unit (1 13) has equipment consisting of an electronic or mechanical electrical switch (relay, transistor, etc.) to discharge the charge on the energy storage unit (131 ) and a resistor or similar on which the energy will be spent. Appropriate voltage converters are used to recover the electrical energy to be received from the missile (120) to the launcher (110) or the platform to which the missile system (100) is connected. Recovery of the charge in the energy storage unit (131 ) on the missile (120) in case of launch cancellation is necessary for the safety of the missile system (100). It is of great importance that the power unit (1 13) and the umbilical cable (114) are selected in accordance with the current values to be used during both charging and discharging operations.

In said missile system (100), in order to use the energy in the selected energy storage unit (131 ) in the most efficient way, the output voltage of the energy storage unit (131 ) is increased by the voltage boost circuit (132) according to the voltage and current values required by the missile (120), decreased by the voltage buck circuit (133) or, depending on the changing conditions during the flight, both the increase and decrease processes are selectively performed under control by the voltage conversion circuit (134) when necessary. The voltage required by said missile (120) is Vf volts, and the voltage of the energy storage unit (131 ) varies between V1 volts and V2 volts as a function of the energy used and time. If it is assumed that there is a V1 > Vf > V2 relationship between the voltages, the voltage must first be decreased from V1 volts to Vf volts and then increased from V2 volts to Vf volts. In this way, the maximum energy in the energy storage unit (131 ) is converted into a usable form by the missile (120). This means that the flight time, weight and volume of the missile (120) are optimised.

Claims

1. A missile system (100) consisting of a missile (120) carrying an explosive head for the destruction or damage of the determined target by remote control and a launcher (1 10) which fires the missile (120), comprising:

- an energy source (130) that is positioned in the missile (120), is used instead of the thermal battery to provide the electrical energy required by the missile (120) to reach the determined target, and is charged before firing and discharged in the event of aborted firing; and

- a power unit (1 13) that is positioned on the launcher (1 10) for charging/discharging the energy source (130).

2. A missile system (100) according to Claim 1 , wherein the energy source (130) is a battery, capacitor, super capacitor and hybrid capacitor.

3. A missile system (100) according to Claim 1 , comprising the energy storage unit

(131 ) that is positioned in the energy source (130), and is charged by the launcher (110) prior to launch and discharged to eliminate the vulnerability in case the launch is aborted.

4. A missile system (100) according to Claim 1 , comprising the conversion circuit (134) that selectively increases and decreases the output voltage of the energy accumulator unit (131 ) within a control, when necessary, according to the voltage and current values required by the missile (120) in order to use the energy in the energy storage unit (131 ) in the most efficient way, depending on the changing conditions during flight.

5. A missile system (100) according to Claim 4, comprising the voltage boost circuit

(132) gathered under the conversion circuit (134) to increase the output voltage of the energy storage unit (131 ) according to the voltage and current values required by the missile (120) in order to use the energy in the energy storage unit (131 ) in the most efficient way.

6. A missile system (100) according to Claim 4, comprising the voltage buck circuit

(133) collected under the energy storage unit (131 ) to reduce the output voltage of the energy storage unit (131 ) according to the voltage and current values required by the missile (120) in order to use the energy in the energy storage unit (131 ) in the most efficient way.

7. A missile system (100) according to Claim 1 , comprising the umbilical cable (1 14) connecting the communication (112) in the launcher (110) to the missile computer (121 ) in the missile (120), and the power unit (113) to the energy source (130). 8. A missile system (100) according to Claim 1 , comprising equipment consisting of a relay, transistor or similar electronic or mechanical electrical switch and a resistor or similar on which the energy will be spent, in order to discharge the charge on the power unit (1 13), and energy storage unit (131 ) in case the missile (120) launching process is aborted. 9. A missile system (100) according to Claim 1 , comprising a voltage converter for recovering electrical energy from the missile (120) to the launcher (1 10) or platform.