EagleEye Airborne FSO Communication System

FSO systems have many desirable attributes for Air Force aircraft, especially their ability to operate without RF emissions, their immunity to RF interference and jamming, and the inherent LPI/LPD operation. These advantages are often viewed to be hampered by the challenges of operating through the atmosphere, which creates scintillation and absorption that can disrupt the communication link. To address these issues, SA Photonics has developed innovative closed-loop tracking and signal processing techniques that provide robust and reliable communication through a wide variety of atmospheric conditions, while maintaining a simple and low-cost system architecture. While FSO links are being introduced for terrestrial and space based applications, the use in airborne platforms to-date has been limited to demonstrations only. There are currently no FSO systems in use today on airborne platforms, mainly due to the need to use large and expensive stabilized gimbals. SA Photonics’ EagleEye FSO system includes internal optical beam stabilization that allows the terminal to be directly attached to the aircraft, greatly reducing the cost to deploy and allowing use even on small UAVs. With the resulting compact size and robust and reliable performance, EagleEye promises to enable widespread transition to the warfighter.