Lorentz force perturbations of a charged ballistic missile

It has been suggested that systematic targeting errors could arise from an uncompensated Lorentz force acting on a charged vehicle traveling through the earth's magnetic field. Lorentz force trajectory deflections from an elliptic reference orbit are determined. Since the amplitude of the Lorentz force depends on the electrostatic charge, several charging mechanisms are considered. It is shown that negligible deflections are caused by environmental charging in space and during reentry. The largest trajectory deflections could occur if the vehicle was intentionally charged, for example to deflect an electron beam.