Advanced Manufacturing of Optical Bench Isolation Systems for Airborne Laser

Vibration control is critical for directed energy weapons such as Airborne Laser. Vibration aboard the weapon platform is a limiting factor both for generating the energy beam (dynamic alignment control of the laser resonator optics) and for beam-directing accuracy. A unique active-passive system has been developed for resonator alignment control of Airborne Laser. It allows dynamic control of the rigid-body modes of entire optical benches at low frequency (i.e. dynamic alignment) while simultaneously isolating the benches from the airframe at higher frequencies to avoid exciting their local resonances. However this optical bench isolation system has been, for the first ABL aircraft, manufactured and hand-built largely by prototype manufacturing methods, without benefit of systematic design-for-manufacture. It has proven to be a capable performer but costly and time-consuming to build and test and somewhat heavy. It is proposed to refine the design with respect to present and potential manufacturing methods while also adding enhancements for higher performance. Objectives are to improve cost, weight, time-to-build, and actuator performance. A smaller, simpler, lower cost variant will also be developed for smaller payloads with less stringent requirements, particularly in civil and commercial applications.