The US armed forces will plan and conduct operational maneuvers from the sea and sustained operations ashore. These deployments will require accurate target acquisition and designation beyond line-of-sight, under limited visibility, and during day or night engagements. A laser target designator/rangefinder boresighted to a FLIR or day camera can perform accurate ranging and target acquisition from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform. To meet the mission needs of the US Marine Expeditionary Warfighters, the US Army's and Navy's need for precision targeting for Hellfire, Copper Head, and other laser guided ordinance, the UAV Joint Project Office is evaluating NDI laser designator payloads for UAV application. During the upcoming laser designator evaluation on the Hunter UAV, critical laser parameters will be measured: beam dispersion, energy level, pulse width, stability, amplitude, jitter and payload autotrack performance. The purpose of this and future demonstrations/evaluations is to characterize the laser designators/rangefinders performance on various targets at various ranges. These tests will determine the maximum effective range versus target types and UAV stability parameters. Test data will provide valuable information for future laser designator/rangefinder demonstrations on the Tactical UAV, Predator, and Pioneer.
Laser designation for improving payload pointing accuracy
Navigation and Control Technologies for Unmanned Systems ; 1996 ; Orlando,FL,United States
Proc. SPIE ; 2738
1996-05-27
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
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