A System for Enabling Use of Laser Systems in a Transonic Flow Environment

A system that provides a large field of regard for propagation of a lethal beam from a transonic platform will be evaluated. The proposed design incorporates concepts to address the fact that shocks do develop in transonic flow, but with the proposed system the field of regard should be enhanced. A second feature is provided that allows a simple method of controlling optical aberrations imposed by the shear layer. The resulting optical-aberration will have a well defined and minimal requirement for robust adaptive-optic correction of a laser propagated through the controlled shear layer.