The guidance section sends three rotational measurements to the AIM-120's control section. What are they?

• A. Roll, pitch, and heading
• B. Pitch, yaw, and roll
• C. Pitch, yaw, and attitude
• D. Yaw, pitch, and roll

Answer: (B)

The main idea is understanding the three rotational axes that define an object's orientation in 3D space. The guidance section sends angles that describe rotation about each axis: pitch, yaw, and roll.

Pitch is the tilt of the nose up or down around the lateral axis, yaw is the left-right sweep around the vertical axis, and roll is the tilting of the wings around the longitudinal axis. These three angles together describe the missile’s orientation and are what the control section needs to compute how to steer.

Heading is a directional measure on the horizontal plane, not a rotation angle, and attitude describes the overall orientation (often thought of as the combination of pitch, yaw, and roll) rather than a single rotational measurement. So the three rotational measurements sent are pitch, yaw, and roll.