Optics And Photonics: Impact on Defense Systems

• Surveillance
  Optical Sensors
  Optical Integrated Circuits
  Night-Vision Equipment
  Laser Rangefinders, Designators, Jammers, And Communicators
   
• Laser Weapons
  Tactical High Energy Laser
  Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser
  Maritime Laser Demonstrator
  Fiber-Optic Systems
  Photonic-Crystal Fibers (Pcfs)
   
•  Chemical and Biological Species Detection
  Nuclear, Biological, And Chemical Weapons
   
•  Optical Signal Processing
   
• Identification of Technological Opportunities from Recent Advances
  Synthetic Aperture Laser Radar
  Multi-Mode Laser Sensing
  Sparse Aperture Laser Sensing
  Wide-Area Surveillance Sensors
  Geiger-Mode Imaging
  Hyper-Spectral Sensing
   
• Free-Space Laser Communications

Sensor Systems are getting subsequent “battleground” for dominance in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), with optics-based sensors representing a big fraction of ISR systems.

In addition, laser weapons are poised to cause a revolution in military affairs, and integrated optoelectronics is on the verge of replacing many traditional integrated circuit functions. Sophisticated platforms have reduced the need for a large set of traditional warfighters, but there is an increased need for a high-tech workforce to support those platforms.

Although conventional night-vision imagers became commodities available to anyone with money, more sophisticated optical-based surveillance systems have made major progress in the past decade and afford an excellent opportunity.

Laser Rangefinders, Designators, Jammers, and Communicators:

The significant increase in laser diode efficiency including the decrease in cost has enabled recent advances in the area of laser designators. One of the key motivators for moving to, for instance, optical communications, is that they minimize the probability of interception, jamming, and detection, while dramatically decreasing the power required.

1.Fiber-Optic Systems

Fiber-optic systems have continued to evolve to realize higher performance with lower power during a smaller volume.

2. Optical Signal Processing

Optical processing continues to be very promising since some mathematical functions can be performed very rapidly using optical analog techniques.