To highly accurately recognize the specific position of a flying member to be recognized in a short time by a relatively simple process.

Based on the infrared ray image of a flying member whose image is picked up by an infrared ray camera 1, any processing of an approximation processing to the isosceles triangle of the image of the flying member by a triangular approximation processing part 3, the detection of a line temperature pattern in a two-dimensional differentiated image by a temperature collating part 5, the detection of a temperature pattern similar to the temperature distribution pattern of an object by a temperature distribution processing part 7, and the measurement of a circular degree profile in a binarized infrared ray image by a circular degree measuring part 9 is selectively performed. Then, based on data obtained in these processing parts, the front end part and the rear end part of a ballistic missile as the object are respectively recognized in a control processing part 10. Further, the position of the bow of the missile is recognized from the recognized results.