US Government As Represented by the Secretary of the Army

William B McKnight

William F Otto

Thomas A Barr, Jr

Walter B Jennings, Jr

William E McCracken

James J Fagan

Thomas E Honeycutt

Marlan O Scully

Richard D Milton

William H Louisell

The missile system disclosed herein involves directing a beam from a modeely powered laser on a taget for such time that a hot spot is produced. This hot spot is then used as a target for a cooperating infrared seeking missile.

Thermally marked target missile system

A new mid-infrared laser in hydrogen which produces an output when excited by a high voltage pulse discharge in a long, low loss cavity to produce laser action in three or more lines as output pulses with lengths varying from less than 1 microsecond to over 6 microseconds with wavelengths in the 3 .mu.m band including 3.71 .mu.m, 3.77 .mu.m, and 3.84 .mu.m.

Mid-infrared laser in molecular hydrogen

A cryogenic infrared laser in deuterium in which an output is produced by exciting the deuterium after it has been cooled to cryogenic temperature with a high voltage pulse discharge to produce laser action in three or more lines as output pulses with varying lengths and with wavelengths in the 4 .mu.m band and including 4.52 .mu.m, 4.60 .mu.m, and 4.71 .mu.m.

Cryogenic infrared laser in deuterium

A system for intercepting a target with a missile having semi-active homing guidance. The target is discretely illuminated by a laser beam and the missile homes on the reflected illumination from the target.

Missile system using laser illuminator

A missile guidance system in which a projectile or missile is fired toward predetermined target with the missile being tracked on its flight toward the target by radar, processing the radar information in a computer apparatus and finally computing a new trajectory from the missile to the target and transmitting correction signals to a correction device on the missile including thrusters on the missile to cause the trajectory of the missile to be changed to the newly computed trajectory for the missile. This system corrects the trajectory of the missile while in flight by recomputing a trajectory from the missile to the predetermined target and making appropriate corrections each time. Thisenables the missile to only contain radar reflecting means, and correction detection and control means on the missile rather than having gyro and other type devices on board the missile which take up a considerable amount of space and weight.

Missile guidance system utilizing polarization

A population inversion is established by beam foil excitation. A beam of completely stripped nuclei is passed through a foil target. An ion beam travels between the plates of a strip transmission line in a plane parallel to those plates. The foil is located in a slot in one of the plates. A voltage pulse is applied at the downstream end of the line and a wavefront propagates down the plates towards the upstream end. This pulse will cause deflection of the ion beam towards the foil along a linear intersection path which travels at approximately the velocity of light.

X-ray generator

A laser missile guidance system in which a projectile or missile is fired ward a predetermined target with the missile being tracked on its flight toward the target by laser radar, processing the laser radar information in a computer apparatus and finally computing a new trajectory from the missile to the target and transmitting correction signals to a correction device on the missile including thrusters on the missile to cause the trajectory of the missile to be changed to the newly computed trajectory for the missile. This system corrects the trajectory of the missile while in flight by recomputing a trajectory from the missile to the predetermined target and making appropriate corrections each time. This enables the missile to only contain laser radar reflecting means, and correction detection and control means on the missile rather than having gyro and laser type devices on board the missile which take up a considerable amount of space and weight.

Growing community of inventors

Huntsville, AL, United States of America

William B McKnight