Novel Sensors and Data Fusion Methods for an All Weather Tracker

The High Energy Laser Mobile Test Truck (HEL-MTT) has been demonstrated to be an effective system to counter rockets, artillery, and mortars (RAM) and has the potential to address threat unmanned aerial systems. The system effectiveness is limited by the supporting acquisition and tracking systems that place the kill laser on the target. In particular, adverse weather conditions limit acquisition and tracking performance and hence overall system performance. Enhanced acquisition and tracking sensors and algorithms are required to address this limitation. Polaris Sensor Technologies investigated a variety of sensing modalities across the infrared to improve acquisition and tracking performance in adverse weather. Based on measurements in multiple IR wavebands, Polaris determined that a MWIR/LWIR imaging polarimeter was an optimal solution for passively acquiring a target through degraded visual environments at long range. A dual-wave MWIR/LWIR large pixel format sensor with on-demand polarization sensing (DIPOD) sensor will be developed in Phase II as a candidate next generation Acquisition Tracking Sensor upgrade to the HEL-MTT platform.