Effect of Ballistic Laser Protective Goggles on TOW Missile Launcher Tracking

摘要

The introduction of laser rangefinders and designators as adjuncts to weaponsystems on today's modern battlefield creates a high probability for ocular injury. The short-term solution to this problem is the Ballistic Laser Protection System (B-LPS), a set of polycarbonate eye spectacles designed to provide laser and ballistic protection without degrading performance. Pursuit tracking performance of eight male volunteers wearing the B-LPS was measured using a modified TOW missile launcher under both bright light and dawn/dusk ambient light conditions. On the test day each volunteer received five baseline trials, and five trials with each of the three components of the B-LPS, the clear ballistic lens, the green laser protective frontsert, and the brown sunglasses. One additional prototype filter designated as the prime color filter was also evaluated. Analysis of Variance and the post hoc comparisons of the horizontal Root Mean Square (RMS) error scores found no significant differences among the filter conditions under bright light conditions, but under dawn/dusk conditions significantly increased error scores were found compared to the bright light trials. The present findings indicate that under good visibility none of these materials should significantly degrade performance. However, under limited visibility conditions, differences can be expected. Keywords: Laser; Laser protection; Performance human; Pursuit tracking. (KT)