Stabilized Laser Beam Pointing for Lightweight Laser Designators

Laser designation plays an essential role in today’s high precision combat environment. However, the effectiveness of laser designators is limited by the ability of the user to hold/aim the laser on the target. Currently, heavy tripods are the only tools available to assist the warfighter in minimizing beam pointing error. Given the amount of gear carried by today’s warfighter, a compact, lightweight, and low power approach is needed to stabilize the laser designator without the need to carry additional equipment. The successful solution requires a low power approach, since otherwise the soldier is again burdened to carry large amounts of batteries. The challenge associated with the proposed approach lies in the need to develop a miniaturized, highly rugged, reliable and low power laser steering component. To address this critical need, Intelligent Automation Inc. (IAI) has developed an integrated laser stabilization system which satisfies these requirements. The main advantages of the innovation herein proposed are: • Low weight and small size suitable for hand held operation • Low power consumption and low cost, suitable for widespread integration • Open architecture, suitable for integration with diverse OEM components • Near term solution leveraging COTS components already present in most laser designators