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BAE SYSTEMS MEMS IMU guides ERGM to test success

22 Jul 2002

The BAE Systems SiIMU™ successfully aided the guidance of an Extended Range Guided Munition (ERGM) round 39 nautical miles to its designated target area at White Sands Missile Range, NM.

In this first-of-a-kind flight test, the 5" calibre ERGM All Up Round was fired from a representative Mk45 Mod4 naval gun system, instantly accelerating it to 1875 mph. The round achieved all test objectives and exceeded terminal end-game accuracy requirements. The all-silicon micro-machined 'MEMS' Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) established the orientation of the projectile immediately after launch, enabled GPS satellite acquisition and provided inertial data for weapon guidance throughout the flight. BAE Systems is a Team ERGM member, led by Raytheon Company and the US Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division.

SiIMU™ incorporates the world's first micro-machined silicon ring gyroscopes. These tiny solid state sensors are part of the inertial sensing core of the IMU and are extremely robust, having been demonstrated to survive shocks in excess of 20,000g. Fabrication of the sensors is done by automatic, silicon wafer processing methods, similar to those used in the semi-conductor industry, thus making them truly mass producible and affordable. The sensors are produced in high volume (>3 million per year) for a variety of commercial and automotive systems, allowing a significant cost advantage over conventionally produced products. This dual-use technology has enabled weapon system designers to develop new solutions that were previously unachievable with conventional mechanical and optical IMUs.

The SiIMU™ used in ERGM is a gun-hardened derivative of the BAE Systems generic IMU, SiIMU01™. This COTS IMU has applications in both commercial and military markets for six degree-of-freedom inertial sensing. SiIMU01™ is in use for several major new weapon system programmes that will be in service from 2005.