Sensor-Array Broadband Express-Rate Wavefront Sensor (SABER-WFS) for closed-loop airborne DE applications

Robust operation of the airborne Laser Weapon System (LaWS) requires the use of a closed-loop Adaptive Optics System (AOS) that enables an active compensation of the intensity losses and boosts the beam energy/power delivered on a target. An AOS that is capable of operating in real flight scenario necessitates for the wavefront sensor (WFS) with a real-time frame rate on the order of 100 times  the bandwidth of the aero-optical caused aberrations. As temporal frequencies of these disturbances are in kHz ranges, a WFS that operates with a real-time sampling rate of hundreds of kilohertz is required. The bandwidth of current state-of-the-art AOS is limited to several kHz, making them inapt to compensate aero-optics related intensity losses. This program aims to develop a 250 kHz bandwidth WFS, the key element of AOS, that would satisfy the stated requirements. The proposed high-bandwidth SABER-WFS system with its design and operation based on an on-board processing shall minimize the lag between sensing and calculating wavefronts, resulting in stable performance of AOS and an effective operation of airborne LaWS.