Laser Periscope Detection

Beam Engineering for Advanced Measurements Company (BEAM Co.) proposes to develop an electronically-scanned periscope detection system utilizing novel breakthroughs in laser systems, gated imagers, and electronic optical path switching to enable detection of periscopes at long range, and discrimination of periscopes from clutter objects based on high-resolution imaging of periscopes and clutter, without the use of conventional optical gimbals. The opportunity of electronic switching of the angular location and the size of the field of view (FOV) of the gated imager electronically combined with electronic switching of the beam divergence and of the pointing direction of the laser illuminator would allow fast and light-weight systems.The technology does not depend on optically-augmented returns from the periscope optics and is not subject to well-known countermeasures based on spectrally selective filtering or on polarization filtering within the threat periscope. Nor is our approach susceptible to failures due to the periscope detection system being outside the FOV of the periscope. Our approach leverages existing deployed Navy airborne and shipborne radar systems that are capable of detecting threat periscopes, and provides an independent and unambiguous identification capability. It also provides an autonomous search capability independent of radar assets.