Patent ID: 6961070

Claim:
A method of displaying to a user, on an image of a scene captured by a camera carried by an aircraft or associated with a simulator of such aircraft, a predicted effectiveness of a weapon that can be launched from the aircraft, if the weapon were to be launched from the aircraft toward a weapon aim point located in the scene, the method comprising: providing to the user a menu of weapon types that can be carried by and launched from the aircraft; determining the position and orientation of the camera with respect to the scene; allowing the user to select a weapon type from the menu; allowing the user to define weapon release conditions, including release altitude, target type, airspeed, dive angle, quantity of weapons, fuse type, release interval and weapon guidance type; allowing the user to select a weapon aim point in the scene; calculating, from at least the weapon type and the defined release conditions, a predicted effectiveness of the selected weapon type at the selected aim point; determining, from the calculated predicted effectiveness, a weapon effectiveness footprint; calculating, from the determined effectiveness footprint and the determined position and orientation of the camera with respect to the scene, the weapon effectiveness footprint with respect to the aim point; blending the calculated weapon effectiveness footprint with the scene; and displaying to the user the blended scene, including the calculated weapon effectiveness footprint.