The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 31, 1999
Filed:
Mar. 09, 1998
William C Pittman, Huntsville, AL (US);
James H Mullins, Huntsville, AL (US);
John B Meadows, Huntsville, AL (US);
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
The dual band millimeter-infrared fiber optics guidance data link presents nhanced seekers with the capability to see through cloud cover while exhibiting resolution that is adequate to strike high value targets. Such a seeker may use a bi-directional dual band data link in the form of a secure, high bandwidth optical fiber between the missile in flight and the ground station, offering the capability to transmit millimeter-infrared sensor data from the missile to the ground station and transmit missile guidance signals from the ground station to the missile over the same high bandwidth optical fiber. Both infrared and millimeter target signature data is made available in the ground station by the use of applicants' invention. Such availability not only provides the gunner with an additional capability to identify the target and thus avoid fratricide, but fusion of the infrared and millimeter data in the automatic target recognizer in the ground station provides an additional capability to classify and identify targets while preserving high-value components of the data link by their removal from the missile to the ground station.