On: A Navigator for America's Deadliest Cold War ICBM

[baybal2]

Nowadays you can buy a toy quadcopter, and get a single chip gyro with on-package computer and performance of mid-cold war ICBM INS.

Microelectronics is a tough industry. Fear of communism can not match the fear of loosing to a commercial competitor in a half trillion dollar industry.

[dekhn → baybal2]

chip gyros aren't as accurate as this in practical reality. they give up a lot of accuracy. you need good, hard mass and well-machined metal.

[dreamcompiler → baybal2]

Not even close. Single chip gyros and accelerometers are many orders of magnitude less accurate. INAV with microelectronic gyros and accelerometers is pointless except for very short distances with frequent GPS corrections. Double integration is a cruel bitch.

[baybal2 → dreamcompiler]

I may have stretched that, but proper mems INS can have less than 1 degree per hour drift easily. That is solidly in the MRBM level accuracy.

And what is in the lab now, can go below 0.1

It was long believed that gyroscope precision is limited by its size, but as what latest gyros show, it's not.