Kill Assessment and Closely Spaced Object Resolution with Elevated Electro-Optic/Infrared (EO/IR)

This Phase I effort will develop a concept of operation and identify COTS sensors for an EO/IR imaging system capable of providing Raid Count and Kill Assessment for ships under attack by a complex of sub- or super-sonic cruise missiles. The missiles are organized into complexes of Closely Spaced Objects (CSOs) which fall outside the resolution capabilities of ship-based radar systems. These complexes are deliberately configured to pose the greatest possible threat by obscuring some of the objects behind others. The attacker hopes to overwhelm the ship’s countermeasures rendering the ships defenseless. This situation will be avoided by employing EO/IR sensors that are cued by the ship-based radar. These sensors will resolve the obscured objects within the CSO complex, increasing the efficiency of the ship’s defenses by accurately assessing the raid and the evaluating the effectiveness of the countermeasures in real time. The proposed effort will investigate design options for the high-resolution EO/IR imaging system and evaluate where it should be positioned to maximize effectiveness.