1Rockets and Missiles Systems Research Lab, Design and Engineering Division, Bharat Dynamics Limited - Ministry of Defense, Kanchanbagh, Hyderabad, India.
2Electronics Instrumentation Division, Sri Krishna devera University, Ananthpur, (AP), India.
Modern Electronic Warfare (EW) needs missiles with built in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to protection against high power pulsed laser Countermeasure (CM) techniques. Third and fourth generation missile often use Infrared Focal Plane Array (IRFPA) imaging for target acquisition and tracking. In the acquisition phase, the seeker system detects the target. In tracking phase, the images from the seekers IRFPA are used to guide the weapon towards ‘onto the target’.
In this state-of-art research work, we focus on high intensity irradiance CM effects on IRFPA seeker systems. The aim of the LASER Striking Countermeasure (LSCM) study is to quantify the effects on imaging systems to predict the changes (Ref -1), to improve the detection and pointing capabilities. Dazzling with a continuous or quasi-continuous pulsed laser causes a reversible saturation effect on the detector array as shown in figures (9- to 14). Massive photon bombardment on IRFPA (ref 1, 2 and 3), temporarily it suffers LSCM syndrome. The intended effect is to deny the imager by saturating the detector and consequently preventing the weapon from successful a hit. The problem of locating the threat and pointing the laser is closely connected to the Counter-Countermeasure (CCM) effectiveness. This has been investigated particularly for specific applications such as Directed Infrared Countermeasure (DIRCM) systems for aircraft or tank self protection. The retro-reflection effect, which occurs when a searching laser beam is directed towards the missile, causing laser dazzling. We currently aim to use the retro-reflection effect in a wider range of applications.
