Testing and Evaluation of High Energy Portable Laser Source used as a Target Designator along with a Laser Seeker

Abstract

Precision guided munitions are often driven with the help of a special kind of laser beam, pointing onto the target of interest which can be a ground based stationary target or a moving one. The laser source which is popularly known as target designator is a key element in this and plays a vital role in performing any laser guided bombings. In this paper a testing methodology and evaluation technique is described for such a portable high energy laser source. The parameters of the designator are tested in laboratory environment as well as verified in field conditions. The measured and tested parameters are laser source energy, pulse repetition frequency, laser wavelength accuracy and pulse width. A laser guided bomb seeker is also used to test with and verify different designator parameters specially the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) in field conditions. The PRF is generally set in the seeker manually and the designators are fired onto a target for different PRFs and energy levels. If the PRF of the seeker matches with that of the designator then it locks onto the target and if different it does not. In this experiment one more designator is also fired onto a different target within the field of view of the seeker with the same parameters except the energy level. The seeker changes its position to the target having higher energy density provided pulses are within its detection window.