Autonomous Flight Termination System and Method

An autonomous flight termination system for terminating vehicle flight after the vehicle is launched from an aircraft includes a global positioning system (GPS) receiver; a termination unit selected from a cut-off switch connected to terminate vehicle flight when actuated, and a switch connected to detonate an explosive on the vehicle; a system controller for receiving a first signal indicating separation of the vehicle from the aircraft and a second signal from the GPS receiver to calculate an actual vehicle trajectory, and for sending a third signal to actuate the termination unit to terminate the flight of the vehicle when the actual vehicle trajectory is determined to be outside the safety bounds of a mission-planned flight trajectory; and a failsafe controller connected to receive operational data of the system controller, and to actuate the termination unit when the operational data indicates that the system is in an error state.