Mid-wave Infrared (MWIR) Illuminator for Ground and Small Unmanned Aircraft System (SUAS) Targeting

The objective of this proposal is to demonstrate the feasibility of mid-wave infrared (MWIR) illuminators for ground and small unmanned aircraft system (SUAS) targeting. Advances such as high-operating-temperature sensors are enabling MWIR imagers with significantly reduced battery consumption, size and weight. This allows MWIR imagers to be used in ground tactical, hand-held and SUAS applications. Gated MWIR illumination using a rare-earth doped crystalline laser has been used to see objects, e.g., cell phone towers and railway cars, through rain and fog that otherwise were not visible or barely visible. In order to field illuminators for small weapon-mounted and SUAS, a more compact, rugged laser source like quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) is needed. There have been significant advances in the output power and efficiency MWIR QCLs over the last few years that make them a viable solution for compact and rugged illuminators. The major tasks in Phase I are to complete an analysis and testing to demonstrate that QCLs have sufficient output to meet the required ranges, an analysis of the band selection requirement, demonstrate a method of speckle reduction, analyze the tradeoff of features and SWaP and to clarify the Phase II prototype requirements.