Electro-optical Seeker

Mission times for high velocity projectiles (HVP) are very short and detection and discrimination of targets must happen quickly and decisively. One way to achieve this is through the enhanced contrast resulting from polarized sensing, which tends to highlight manmade objects and suppress natural background clutter. Thermal polarimetric sensing in a small package has been demonstrated already but has not been tested in the harsh launch environment of a HVP. Other spectral bands may offer complementary contrast advantages that could be paired with the thermal. Volume constraints of the HVP will limit the choices for such sensor suites and careful design is required to ensure compatibility. Integrating such a capability into a 155mm HVP creates other challenges including optics, hardening for the launch and flight environments, and for the short timeline for engaging the target. Polaris Sensor Technologies is proposing to develop concepts, perform modeling and simulation to assess the concepts, and to generate a sensor suite design for this Phase I. This will lay the ground work for developing multiple prototypes for testing at the end of the Phase II.