Sighting and laying system for a missile launcher

Claim 1

A process for sighting and laying a missile and its gyro axis to a predetermined elevation and orient this axis in any desired horizontal direction, comprising: establishing a cant axis reference in a rear sight mounting assembly about which a theodolite can be aligned to compensate for a non level attitude launcher elevating and orienting mechanism, autocollimating said theodolite on said cant axis to establish the theodolite axis parallel therewith, locking said theodolite in said parallel position, establishing a missile gyro reference on the forward end of said missile, optically transferring said gyro axis to the exterior of said missile, autocollimating said theodolite axis on said gyro axis reference using azimuth and elevation adjustments, setting the azimuth scale of said theodolite to read 0°, rotating said theodolite mounting assembly against selected elevation stops, establishing an elevation reference in said theodolite mounting assembly, elevating said missile to match said elevation references to thus align said missile gyro axis to the selected elevation, and laying the missile in a selected azimuth.