Integrated IR/RF Scene Generation for Closed-Loop Missile Engagement Simulators

Two separate design concepts are described for a multispectral hardware-in-the loop (HWIL) missile engagement simulator using a dichroic screen which is reflective in the infrared (IR) region and transmissive in the microwave (or RF) region. Pacific-Sierra Research Corporation (PSR) is currently evaluating five candidate dichroic beamsplitter elements in a related HWIL Dichroic Target Screen project. One design concept uses a small dichroic screen in an agile mode to translate and tilt the IR wavefront prior to combining it with the RF wavefront. This low risk development approach has the disadvantage of only being able to simulate the dynamic image overthe relatively narrow field of view (NFOV) allowed by the width of the dichroic element. A large field of regard is obtained by translation of the dichroic element. A second design approach uses a relatively large, stationary dichroic screen to reflect the project IR wavefront to the missile sensor under test. This development approach has the advantage of being able to simulate the dynamic image over the relatively wide field of view (WFOV) allowed by the width of the dichroic screen. This approach will allow rapid IR target motion to be simulated by rapidly moving the projected IR image across the dichroic screen. This more involved development approach requires the development of a larger dichroic screen.