A Ladar Signature Capability for Transient Missile Events for FLITES

Engagement simulation models provide an indispensable tool for the design of sophisticated missile defense systems. This requires treating real-time motions and the complex scattering physics of active laser interactions with plume and debris fields from hardbody/plume transient events. Spectral Sciences, Inc., in collaboration with Kinetics, Inc and Photon Research Associates, Inc., proposes to extend FLITES (Fast Line-of-sight Imagery for Target and Exhaust Signatures) to the active sensing ladar imaging regime, and thus unify the passive and active signature generation within a single freely-available DoD standard signature code. An innovative model with adjustable fidelity will enable application to detailed analysis of field data and real time hardware-in-loop simulations. The model will include reflection from the target and a Doppler/ranging capability. In Phase I, a ladar model of the chaff deployment scenario was demonstrated using 100000 individual chaff elements. In Phase II, an upgraded ladar module will be integrated into FLITES. Several additions to the FLITES architecture for polarization, shadowing, coherency, and multiple reflections as well as upgrades for hardbody, debris, and chaff models will be introduced. Chaff deployment, thrust termination, and other scenarios will be considered.