Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation

US Government As Represented by the Secretary of the Army

Thomas E Godfrey

Marco A Lopez

Raymond H Ottoson

Gary O McFerson

David L Hammond

Quentin D Appert

Richard F Odum

Lovere A Moesser

A method of testing a laser target designator, in which an aperture in the field of view of the laser target designator has one side facing the target image detector and the laser, a beam image detector faces an opposite side of the aperture and is aligned with the opening thereof so that the beam optical axis and the opposite side of the aperture are in a field of view of the beam image detector, both sides of the aperture being illuminated, and beam video processor obtains a test video image from the beam image detector and computes a centroid of the aperture in the test video image and a centroid of the laser beam in the test video image, the displacement of these centroids being a measure of the static error while relative movement of them during dithering of the optical path from the laser target designator is a measure of the dynamic error.

Laser target designator tester for measuring static and dynamic error

A device for automatically compensating for dynamic boresight errors between a visual line of sight and the apparent center of a beam of radiation emitted by the device. The radiation emitted by the device is used to guide a 'beam-riding' missile to its target. Different sectors of the beam radiated by the device are modulated by different codes so that the missile can sense the apparent center of the beam. Optics within the device sense the extent to which the visual line of sight deviates from the apparent center of the radiated beam by means of measurements upon the coincidence of the visual line of sight and the apparent center of the beam of radiation within the device. The device then alters the coding of the radiated beam so that the apparent center of the radiated beam maintains alignment with the visual line of sight.

Automatic boresight compensation device

A method and apparatus is described for boresighting the sighting systems ed with a 1.06 micrometer designator laser. The method enables boresighting visual direct view optics, TV, and forward looking infrared (FLIR) sights with respect to the laser itself, without the use of external targets. The laser beam is focused onto a refractory target in the boresight device, creating very briefly an incandescent hot spot which can be 'seen' by all three sensors. The radiation from this hot spot is collimated by the boresight device optics and projected back into the sights exactly anti-parallel to the laser beam. By aligning the sight reticles with this hot spot, all three types of sights are aligned relative to the laser. Since the hot flash created by the laser energy is of such short duration, the alignment can be accomplished in flight where relative motion exists between the laser designator system and the boresight module. The apparatus disclosed includes a CO.sub.2 laser alignment fixture and a reflective collimator with a phosphor thermal imaging disk for precision alignment of the laser input and FLIR output lines of sight of the boresight module.

Boresighting of airborne laser designation systems

Growing community of inventors

Orange, CA, United States of America

Thomas E Godfrey