SiC All Reflective Telescope Supporting Spiral Upgrades for Emerging Kill Vehicle Architectures to Counter Future Ballistic Missile Threats

Spiral improvements to seekers used in kinetic kill vehicles such as EKV and KEI include the addition of new electro-optic sensors including: LADAR, dual-wavelength focal planes, and additional spectral bands. Historically full advantage of these capability upgrades cannot be achieved because of the required extensive redesign (with the resulting large nonrecurring cost) for current telescopes since each system is designed around a specific sensor suite and optimized for that solution. SSG Precision Optronics, Inc. proposes a novel telescope architecture combining the advantages of SSGPO's low cost cast SiC optical telescope technologies and low cost, highly producible optical design forms pioneered by Raytheon Missile Systems to achieve a telescope design that can be upgraded and improved with minimal reengineering.