Innovative Approach for Modeling the Impact of Paint Gloss on Visual and Near IR Detection

NAVAIR PMAs are motivated by substantial maintenance cost savings to switch aircraft paints from matte to glossy. Yet NAVAIR must confidently weigh these major cost savings against possibly serious survivability penalties from sun glints. To definitively answer these survivability trades, we propose our GLint Assessment with SPIRITS (GLASS) Toolset. Our Phase 1 lab-validated findings indicate a SPIRITS-only modeling approach as sufficient for matte and semi-gloss paints, whereas glossy paints require our hybrid approach using SPIRITS+Zemax. Consequently, NAVAIR retains its investment in SPIRITS, and our hybrid approach avoids signature model development by exploiting the complementary strengths of widely-used SPIRITS and Zemax. Our Phase 2 Base effort will first implement and further validate our GLASS Toolset framework. We will assimilate additional CH-53K candidate paints, using the measurement and model-fitting procedures we validated in Phase 1. We will lab-validate 3D object sun glint and combined specular|diffuse solar signature predictions employing a CAD-machined pole target surrogate. Finally we will apply our built-out GLASS Toolset to quantify candidate paint detectability trades for the CH-53K, using its high-fidelity CAD geometry representation. Our Phase 2 Option effort will package, deliver, and train NAVAIR on our GLASS Toolset to enable them to confirm and extend our findings.