Patent ID: 8176834

Claim:
An automated method for determining fratricide probability of projectile collision from a projectile launcher on a platform and an interception hazard ejectable from a deployment position, the method comprising: determining a firing zone of the platform, said firing zone presenting an area through which the projectile launcher operates; calculating an angular firing zone area from said firing zone that extends from the projectile launcher; quantifying a frontal area of the interception hazard to produce an intercept area with respect to the projectile launcher; translating said frontal area across a flight trajectory of said intercept area to produce a path area; and determining the fratricide probability for said deployment position from dividing said path area by said angular firing zone are, wherein the platform is a combat vessel, the projectile launcher is a gun, the interception hazard is a missile, and the deployment position is a vertical launch cell, further including: calculating an integral for a rectangular solid angle as Ω rectangle =∫ φ 1 φ 2 ∫ θ 1 θ 2 cos φdθdφ as said firing solid angle Ω firingzone , where θ 1 and θ 2 are azimuth bounds and φ 1 and φ 2 are elevation bounds of said firing zone, evaluating an intercept solid angle Ω ordnance as a contiguous group of triangular plates, each plate being represented by triangular points of said spatial points, said each triangular plate forming a triangular solid angle by Ω triangle = 2 ⁢ arctan ⁡ ( [ a → ⁢ b → ⁢ c → ] abc + ( a → · b → ) ⁢ c + ( a → · c → ) ⁢ b + ( b → · c → ) ⁢ a ) , where scaler magnitudes a, b, c represent distances and tensors {right arrow over (a)}, {right arrow over (b)}, {right arrow over (c)} represent vectors between respective said triangular points and the projectile launcher such that Ω ordnance =ΣΩ triangle , and dividing an intercept solid angle determined from discretizing said path area by a firing solid angle determined from azimuth bounds and elevation bounds of said firing zone as: P f = Ω ordnance Ω firingzone , where P f represents fratricidal probability, Ω ordnance represents said intercept solid angle, and Ω firingzone represents said firing solid angle.