VISUAL DISRUPTION NETWORK AND SYSTEM, METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT THEREOF

• US 20150293212A1
• Filed: 06/19/2012
• Published: 10/15/2015
• 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.
• Granted Patent: US 9,714,815 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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

an 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 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 any of the two or more rectangular scan patterns maintained at the same time overlap, and to increase applied laser beam energy only for any overlapping portion.

2. The laser-based visual disruption countermeasure network according to claim 1, further comprising an eye-safe laser-based visual disruption subsystem on-board the first 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 first helicopter, said eye-safe laser-based visual disruption subsystem being operative to maintain at the same time two or more of the rectangular scan patterns,

wherein increasing applied laser beam energy for any overlapping portion includes application of laser beam energy from the eye-safe laser-based visual disruption subsystem on-board the first helicopter and the eye-safe laser-based visual disruption subsystem on-board the second helicopter at the same time.

3. The laser-based visual disruption countermeasure network according to claim 1, wherein increasing applied laser beam energy for any overlapping portion includes increasing scanning frequency for only the overlapping portion or portions.

4. The laser-based visual disruption countermeasure network according to claim 1, wherein increasing applied laser beam energy for any overlapping portion includes increasing intensity of one or more of the laser beams associated with the overlapping portion or portions.

5. The laser-based visual disruption countermeasure network according to claim 1, wherein the 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 ground-based threats occurred.

6. 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.

7. The laser-based visual disruption countermeasure network according to claim 1, wherein the network is configured and operative to keep a same applied laser intensity for any non-overlapping portion of the two or more rectangular scan patterns while applying increased laser beam energy for the overlapping portion or portions.

8. The laser-based visual disruption countermeasure network according to claim 1, wherein the network is configured and operative to reduce applied laser intensity for any non-overlapping portion of the two or more rectangular scan patterns while applying increased laser beam energy for the overlapping portion or portions.

9. A visual acquisition disruptor scanning network, comprising:

means for receiving at a vehicle data regarding previously defined multiple threat regions associated with one or more known threats to an other vehicle, the previously defined multiple threat regions being defined with respect to previous positions of the other vehicle; and

means for outputting a plurality of optical impairment signals from the vehicle, the plurality of optical impairment signals following respective scan patterns based on previous scan patterns of the other vehicle corresponding to the previously defined multiple threat regions, said means for outputting a plurality of optical impairment signals configured and operative to supply an increased amount of energy to a portion of the previously defined threat regions determined to overlap.

10. The visual acquisition disruptor scanning network according to claim 9, wherein the data regarding previously defined multiple threat regions includes an uncertainty area around respective locations of the one or more known threats to the other vehicle.

11. The visual acquisition disruptor scanning network according to claim 9, wherein the optical impairment signals are output simultaneously or substantially simultaneously from said means for outputting a plurality of optical impairment signals of the vehicle.

12. The visual acquisition disruptor scanning network according to claim 9, wherein each said scan pattern is a ground projection in the form of one of a square, a rectangle, an oval, a circle, an ellipse, a triangle, an octagon, a hexagon, or an asymmetric polygon.

13. The visual acquisition disruptor scanning network according to claim 9, wherein the data regarding previously defined multiple threat regions associated with one or more known threats to the other vehicle includes scan pattern data from previous scan patterns deployed by the other vehicle.

14. A visual acquisition disruptor scan pattern method, comprising:

electronically receiving, from a remote location, information regarding a common portion of at least two different previously identified flash detection areas; and

responsive to said electronically receiving, automatically applying in scanning fashion an amount of laser energy to the common portion.

15. The visual acquisition disruptor scan pattern method according to claim 14, wherein said automatically applying an amount of laser energy includes applying an increased amount of laser energy relative to an initial amount of energy applied by a vehicle at the remote location, the increased amount of laser energy including at least one of increasing scanning frequency of one or more lasers for the common portion and increasing intensity of one or more of lasers for the common portion.

16. The visual acquisition disruptor scan pattern method according to claim 14, further comprising:

electronically receiving, from the remote location, information regarding a plurality of different flash detection areas including said at least two different flash detection areas; and

deploying a plurality of different laser scan patterns corresponding to said plurality of different flash detection areas, the number of different flash detection areas matching the number of different laser scan patterns, and each laser scan pattern enveloping its corresponding flash detection area.

17. The visual acquisition disruptor scan pattern method according to claim 14,

wherein the plurality of different laser scan patterns are deployed simultaneously or substantially simultaneously, and

wherein the plurality of different laser scan patterns are maintained substantially for a same amount of time.

18. The visual acquisition disruptor scan pattern method according to claim 14, wherein said automatically applying in scanning fashion an amount of laser energy to the common portion is prior to any previous scanning associated with the location of said electronically receiving from the remote location.

19. The visual acquisition disruptor scan pattern method according to claim 14, the amount of laser energy to the common portion is of an amount sufficient to interfere with an optical system of a weapon or an optical system of a person.

20. The visual acquisition disruptor scan pattern method according to claim 14, where the remote location is associated with one of a ground-, water-, space-, or air-based vehicle.