A HIGH RESOLUTION SENSOR FOR RPV OPERATIONS

REMOTELY PILOTED VEHICLES OFFER A WIDE VARIETY OF CAPABILITIES RANGING FROM TACTICAL AND STRATEGIC MISSIONS TO NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE. ALL THESE MISSIONS SHARE A COMMON NEED, THAT OF HAVING A SENSOR SYSTEM THAT CAN DETECT TARGETS THAT ARE DIM DUE EITHER TO THE "FOG OF WAR" OR TO DELIBERATE ATTEMPTS OF CONCEALMENT. THERE IS ALSO A GROWING NEED TO ACHIEVE LOW OBSERVABILITY FROM A SURVIVABILITY AS WELL AS COVERTNESS VIEWPOINT. THE SPATIAL SPECTRAL INTERFEROMETER (SSI) SENSOR OFFERS A SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM. THE SSI IS A HIGH SPATIAL RESOLUTION, PASSIVE INFRARED SENSOR OF RELATIVELY LIGHT WEIGHT AND REQUIRES LESS DATA LINK CHANNELS AND HOTEL SERVICES. WHERE TARGET DETECTIVITY IS LIMITED BY CLUTTER, THIS SENSOR MAY HAVE ON THE ORDER OF 100 TIMES GREATER SIGNAL TO CLUTTER RATIOS. THUS, THE RPV ASSOCIATED MISSIONS, PARTICULARLY SEARCHING FROM RELOCATABLE TARGETS AND OTHER MOBILE SYSTEMS APPEARS TO BE POSSIBLE WITH THIS SENSOR. LOW OBSERVABILITY CAN BE MAINTAINED DURING DATA TRANSMISSION WHEN THE SENSOR SUITE AND OTHER ONBOARD REPORTING SYSTEMS ARE COUPLED TO A LASER RETROREFLECTOR, BIDIRECTIONAL COMMUNICATIONS LINK. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS STUDY IS TO MAKE A PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF THE PERFORMANCE OF THIS SENSOR AND COMMUNICATIONS LINK CONCEPT.