Hughes Aircraft Company

James J Carlson

Gary R Noyes

Dzung V Phan

The eyepiece (14), objective lens assembly (24), long wavelength infrared sensor (27), missile guidance electronics (30), and all component parts are arranged in a consolidated package for mounting onto a portable missile launcher (10).

Consolidated optical sight and infrared tracker for a portable missile

A portable missile launcher (12) has all of the infrared tracker (20) mounted to the same housing (48). The infrared missile beacon image beam (26) is intercepted by a rotating prism (28) which directs a portion of the beam to a narrow field detector (32) and reflects a further portion from a coating (30) onto a wide field detector (34). The detectors (32,34) provide yaw and pitch signals (40,42) which are compared with on-course information producing error signals communicated to the missile for course correction, if needed.

Infrared tracker for a portable missile launcher

A portable missile launcher has an optical system with a single lens (22) for receiving visible and near infrared light energy from a target (14) directing it to a prism (24) where the light is split into a part transmitted to an eyepiece (28) and a further part (30) to infrared tracking equipment (18). The objective lens (22) is a doublet having a front lens (32) and a rear lens (41) which cooperate to provide sufficiently small chormatic aberration to enable image quality correction for both visual examination and near infrared tracking.

Objective lens assembly for a portable missile launcher

An optical system (10) for portable missile launcher (23) includes an objective lens (12) for receiving the entire visual and near infrared light energy emanating from a target (14) and immediate background of the target. The light energy from the objective lens then passes through a Porro prism assembly (16) which acts to direct visual light along a first path to an eyepiece (20) and near infrared along a second path at approximately a right angle to the first path where it is received by a tracker assembly (22) and monitored. The Porro prism (16) is constructed in accordance with this invention to include a multi-layer interference dichroic coating (18) disposed between the two prisms (34,36) which make up the prism assembly. This coating is of such a nature as to readily permit light energy in the visual range to pass directly through the coating, but at the same time to reflect the near infrared components along a second path bringing them to focus on the tracker assembly (22).

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Woodland Hills, CA, United States of America

James J Carlson