Abstract: A radome useful with high-speed guided missiles has an inner conical shell made of a strong, high temperature resistant material transparent to radiant energy in the operative frequency range of a sensor mounted inside the shell. An outer ablative layer covers the exterior surface of the shell. This layer is made of a material which is also transparent to radiant energy in the sensor frequency range and which melts or sublimes and displaces from the shell at a predetermined elevated temperature and/or velocity during high-speed flight. The thickness of the ablative layer is selected so that it compensates for increased thickness and/or refraction resulting from thermal expansion of the shell, thereby minimizing guidance errors.

Abstract: A projectile body has a gyro mounted therein including a rotor and a mechanism for supporting the rotor for rotation about a spin axis initially coincident with the longitudinal axis of the projectile body and pivotable away from the longitudinal axis of the projectile body. The rotor is initially locked to the projectile body so that it is spun with the projectile body during launch. Thereafter, the rotor is unlocked and the projectile body is de-spun to a relatively slow rate of rotation while transferring angular momentum to the free spinning rotor which continues to rotate at a high rate relative to the projectile body. Rotationally phased steering commands, which are generated from on-board homing sensor signals or up-link data signals received from a remote error sensor, are applied to a linear actuator within the projectile body. The actuator pivots the spin axis of the rotor away from the longitudinal axis of the projectile body.