Bae Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc.

Rca Inc.

Robert C Guyer

Heather L Keegan

Donald Smith

William T Fielder

Daniel J Creeden

Joseph M Schlupf

Peter A Budni

Tate J Keegan

Timothy J O'Donnell

Kevin A LaRochelle

Anthony Kirkham

In an integrated gimbal and High-Powered Multiband Laser (HPMBL) for use in an infrared countermeasure apparatus in a pod mounted on an aircraft, the improvement comprises an optical bench that connects the optical path between side-by-side mounted gimbal and high power laser; and a kinematic mounting system that prevents optical bench bending.

Integrated pod optical bench design

A combined large mode area, fiber cable amplifier and laser beam transport fiber cable is disclosed that transports laser beams output from a compact, high power, solid state laser to remote locations while improving the beam quality and amplifying the beam to compensate for losses in the fiber cable. The fiber cable is clad and is cladding pumped to compensate for the losses in the fiber cable.

Transport fiber amplifier for beam quality improvement

A Mersenne-Cassegrain telescope provided in a single block of glass in which opposed parabolic elements are precision milled through diamond turning of a glass boule, with the magnification power of the telescope determined by the differences in focal length between the two parabolas. The result is a volumetrically small telescope with pre-aligned surfaces that are maintained by the structural rigidity of the glass itself and in which thermal coefficients of expansion, vibration and the like have no effect due to the single glass element structure.

Monolithic eccentric Mersenne-Cassegrain telescope

A transceiver system allows for simultaneous operation of transmit and receive modes, even in shared path configurations, by temporarily making the receiver insensitive to transmitter energy and by modifying standard readout technology to rapidly dissipate any transmitter energy deposited onto the receiver's detector elements. The entirely electronic technique alerts the receiver to the imminent emission of each transmitter pulse. This alert opens a gate voltage switch in the readout and prevents energy that is present on the detector from being passed to the readout integrator. As soon as the transmitter pulse has passed and any charges it generated on the detector have been dissipated, the switch is automatically closed and the receiver is again fully active. Since this on/off switching happens automatically and rapidly it can operate independently from, and have very little impact on the receiver. Furthermore, it levies absolutely no limitations whatsoever on the operation of the transmitter.

Electronic signal blanking in optical transceivers

A single, hard-mounted set of optics is utilized to replace a two field-of-view system for directed countermeasures. It includes within one continuous but distorted field of view the capability to detect, acquire and characterize targets at the edge of the field while precisely tracking with high target fidelity at the field center. With multiple targets, both tracking of a primary target and acquisition of a secondary target can occur simultaneously, greatly improving countermeasure effectiveness.

Method and apparatus of using optical distortion in a directed countermeasure system to provide a variable field of view

A pair of tapered rotatable wedge members are wedged against an optical element which in turn is resiliently mounted to pivot in response to the rotation of either or both of the wedge members. Rotation of one or more of the wedge members aligns the optical axis of the element to a given system optical axis. The optical element in the embodiment disclosed is a mirror forming a resonator with a laser rod whose axis is to be aligned with the mirror optical axis.

Growing community of inventors

Beverly, MA, United States of America

Robert C Guyer