An Integrated Ultra-Compact Optical Sensor System for Situational Awareness and Aircraft Self-Protection

The proposal addresses a new class of large field of view two color MWIR uncooled sensing module with an RF sensor system that is based on a revolutionary concept in sensing optics, potentially providing all weather, all aspect, multi spectral threat warning system. The new design is a practical solution to incorporate uncooled IR detection with existing RF warning sensors to significantly enhance situation awareness of aircrafts. Our approach offers all the desirable performance attributes in sensitivity, resolution, detection range, coverage area, accuracy, cost, and weight. The new approach is simple yet highly effective. The proposed system can instantaneously survey the full surrounding space using quadrant staring optics in each of four separate stations on the aircraft without the use of any scanning mechanism, covering the area with the field of view 90¢X x 360¢X FOV. In addition to the large angle of field view, the angle resolution of our system is adequate for detecting all types of launch threats and trajectory tracking. The Phase I work demonstrated the feasibility of the concept and Phase II will produce the full specification-working prototype.