Advanced Test System for Comprehensive Characterization of Laser Seekers in the Presence of Countermeasures

摘要

Precision guided munitions play a pivotal role in battlefield success by providing commanders with highly improved weapon accuracy. Laser guided bombs are widely exploited precision guided munitions in the contemporary battlefield scenario. These sophisticated weapons are of great tactical importance and also have huge price tags attached to them. Various countermeasures have evolved to deceive them from their intended target. This makes it important that their effectiveness is guaranteed 100 percent by validating operational parameters in realistic operational conditions including the effects of countermeasures designed to defeat their intended objective. This paper presents the design of an advance test system that can be used for comprehensive testing of laser seekers including its response to various types of decoying techniques. The approach is to use lasers having the same wavelength, pulse width and PRF as that of laser designators and countermeasure lasers simulating the same power densities as seen by the laser seekers. The hardware is configured around two semiconductor diode lasers having output wavelengths of 1064nm and PIC microcontroller based embedded system to drive these lasers. The laser seeker head was extensively tested using this advanced test system. The test results are presented in the paper.