This paper addresses one of the key requirements for a successful terminal phase defense intercept, namely the ability to discriminate between the reentry vehicle (RV) and decoys, using space-based infrared (IR) sensors. In the terminal phase, light objects (decoys) slow down faster due to atmospheric drag and follow substantially different trajectories than heavy objects (RV). Therefore, the targets' velocity information will be used to differentiate between the RVs and decoys trajectories within a validating time window. The evaluation of the corresponding Cramér-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) on the covariance of the estimates, and the statistical tests on the results of simulations show that this method is statistically efficient.
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