Shortest UAV trajectory for radar main-lobe jamming: On dubins path to a directed line

This paper investigates the problem of determining the shortest UAV trajectory for radar main-lobe jamming, which is formulated as the shortest path of a Dubins vehicle from a fixed initial configuration to a target line, with the final heading oriented towards the radar. Optimal control theory is employed to characterize this extended Dubins path without imposing assumptions on the relationship between the initial position and the target line. By leveraging Pontryagin's Maximum Principle, several geometric properties of the shortest path are derived, demonstrating that it must belong to a finite family of ten path types. Based on these properties, analytical solutions for each type are derived, allowing their lengths to be computed in constant time. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to validate the optimality of the solutions and demonstrate the computational efficiency of the proposed approach.