Visual disruption network and system, method, and computer program product thereof

• US 9,719,757 B2
• Filed: 06/23/2016
• Issued: 08/01/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Inventors: Moraites, Stephen C., Herman, Carl R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Johnston, Phillip A
• Assistant Examiner(s): TSAI, HSIEN C
• Application Number:
  US15/191,325
• Publication Number:
  US 20160298940A1
• Time in Patent Office: 404 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 45/00 Aircraft indicators or protectors not otherwise provided for camouflage F41H3/00
• CPC Class Codes: F41H 11/02 Anti-aircraft or anti-guided missile or anti-torpedo defence installations or systems cartridges or missiles for producing smoke or for dispensing radar chaff or infrared material F42B5/15, F42B12/48, F42B12/70; informative reference: details of radar or sonar systems G01S7/00; jamming or electronic countermeasures G01S7/38, G01S7/495, H04K3/00
• CPC Class Codes: F41H 13/0056 for blinding or dazzling, i.e. by overstimulating the opponent's eyes or the enemy's sensor equipment
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/00 Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations using active systems G01S13/00, G01S15/00, G01S17/00

Abstract

Aspects of the disclosed subject matter involve an airborne-based network for implementing a laser-based visual disruption countermeasure scan pattern system method, and computer program product. The scan pattern can be comprised of a plurality of lasers each with their own scan pattern and may be used to disrupt an optical system of a weapon or an individual One vehicle in the network can transmit target information and/or scan information to one or more other vehicles or to a non-vehicle remote location in the network.

Claims

1. A laser-based visual disruption countermeasure network including a first helicopter and a second helicopter, comprising:

a hostile fire indicator subsystem on-board the first helicopter to identify locations of stationary or moving ground-based threats to a second helicopter and to generate respective ground-projection zones around the identified locations indicative of possible error in the identified locations,

each of the zones around the identified threat locations being in the form of an ellipse,

said hostile fire indicator subsystem on-board the first helicopter being configured and operative to send data representative of the generated ground-projection zones to the second helicopter in a same general area as the first helicopter; and

a first eye-safe laser-based visual disruption subsystem on-board the second helicopter to generate and output a plurality of laser beams with intensities sufficient to interfere with and temporarily impair a human optical system,

each laser beam being output so as to follow a rectangular scan pattern completely enveloping a corresponding ellipse defining the zone indicating possible error in a corresponding identified threat location, irrespective of current position of the second helicopter,

said first eye-safe laser-based visual disruption subsystem being operative to maintain at the same time two or more of the rectangular scan patterns,

wherein the network is configured and operative to determine whether a first rectangular scan pattern and a second rectangular scan pattern maintained at the same time overlap, each of the first and second rectangular scan patterns being output by a respective one of the laser beams, and

wherein said first and second rectangular scan patterns are each modified by increasing applied laser beam energy of the respective one of the laser beams from a first intensity to a intensity only for any overlapping portion of the first and second rectangular scan patterns.

2. The laser-based visual disruption countermeasure network according to claim 1, further comprising

a second eye-safe laser-based visual disruption subsystem on-board the first helicopter to generate and output a plurality of additional laser beams with intensities sufficient to interfere with and temporarily impair the human optical system,

wherein each additional laser beams is output so as to follow the rectangular scan pattern completely enveloping the corresponding ellipse defining the zone indicating possible error in the corresponding identified threat location, irrespective of current position of the first helicopter,

wherein said eye-safe laser-based visual disruption subsystem is operative to maintain at the same time two or more of the rectangular scan patterns,

wherein the network is configured and operative to determine whether a third rectangular scan pattern and a fourth rectangular scan pattern maintained at the same time overlap each of the third and fourth rectangular scan patterns being output by a respective one of the additional laser beams,

wherein said third and fourth rectangular scan patterns are each modified by increasing applied laser beam energy of the respective one of the additional laser beams from a third intensity to a fourth intensity only for any overlapping portion of the third and fourth rectangular scan patterns, and

wherein said increasing applied laser beam energy of the respective one of the additional laser beams and of the respective one of the laser beams includes application of laser beam energy from the fist eye-safe laser-based visual disruption subsystem and the second eye-safe laser-based visual disruption subsystem at the same time.

3. The laser-based visual disruption countermeasure network according to claim 1, wherein the increasing applied laser beam energy of the respective one of the laser beams includes increasing scanning frequency for only the overlapping portion of the first and second rectangular scan patterns.

4. The laser-based visual disruption countermeasure network according to claim 1, wherein the respective ground-projection zones around the identified locations are defined based on respective positions along a flight path of the first helicopter at which hostile fire associated with the stationary or moving ground-based threats occurred.

5. The laser-based visual disruption countermeasure network according to claim 1, wherein the stationary or moving ground-based threats are human beings firing any one of a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG), anti-aircraft artillery (AAA), and small arms fire at the first helicopter.

6. The laser-based visual disruption countermeasure network according to claim 1, wherein the network is configured and operative to maintain the applied laser intensity for any non-overlapping portion of the first and second rectangular scan patterns while increasing the applied laser beam energy for the overlapping portion.

7. The laser-based visual disruption countermeasure network according to claim 1, wherein the network is configured and operative to reduce the applied laser intensity for any non-overlapping portion of the first and second rectangular scan patterns while increasing the applied laser beam energy for the overlapping portion.