Laser Identifies, Defeats Naval Threats

 

Photo: Royal Canadian Navy

Oct 12, 2011 By Pat Toensmeier -  defense technology international

New York - Defense Research and Development Canada (DRDC) is working on a system that will provide ships in the littorals or those docked in port with continuous laser surveillance of optic threats—any weapon that uses a lens, including laser-guided rockets and missiles, along with binoculars, telescopes and other devices used by spotters.

Called Locates (Laser Optical Countermeasures and Surveillance Against Threat Environment Scenarios), the system is being developed with Cassidian, the defense and security division of EADS. A prototype that also tracks laser-guided threats—including those with low-power lasers—and responds with countermeasures has been tested. Work is continuing, and final testing of the prototype is scheduled to take place in the summer of 2013.

Navies have for years included laser-detection and countermeasures systems in their ships’ defensive capabilities. The work by DRDC and Cassidian could be an effort to improve the speed, accuracy and response of such detection.

Cassidian, which received a $C3.5 million ($3.57 million) contract to develop the prototype and advance the technology, declined to discuss its work. DRDC scientists replied via email to a list of questions about the project.

The Locates Technology Demonstration Project (TDP), the scientists write, is designed to protect all classes of Royal Canadian Navy ships from laser-assisted threats. When the prototype is delivered for field tests, it will integrate subsystems that are also in development by DRDC. These include a surveillance device, sensor and alarm, and countermeasures. “This project is a starting point for technology against laser-guided threats,” the DRDC reports, “and could be used in various situations.”

The prototype incorporates an undisclosed number of laser detectors that provide 180-deg. coverage. The final design will have 360-deg. coverage, DRDC says. The detectors—on the prototype and the final design—are fixed (i.e., non-scanning), so their ability to detect threats is “near instantaneous,” the scientists state. Coastal areas will be scanned for laser threats. Input from the detectors will be interfaced to a processing unit that warns operators when the ship is being illuminated by laser. The processing unit will use the laser receivers to determine a target’s position and track it, and rapidly deploy countermeasures as needed.

The TDP will also provide data on the performance parameters necessary to respond to different threats based on target range, beam absorption in the atmosphere and sensitivity of the laser receivers.

DRDC says it is too early in development to speculate on the final production cost of each laser-defense system, adding that this will depend on performance, integration within shipboard systems and production volume.

Stuart Slade, senior naval analyst at defense consultant Forecast International of Newtown, Conn., believes one goal of Locates may be to improve the speed of threat detection and lower the number of false alarms. “The speed at which a modern naval engagement takes place produces a high false-alarm rate,” he says. This in turn affects the amount of munitions and other countermeasures that are expended to protect a ship. Slade says that by improving the speed and accuracy of threat detection and tailoring an appropriate response, the DRDC could be looking to upgrade this technology for evolving threats and scenarios such as littoral combat, where the detection and countermeasures response time is much less than for a ship operating over the horizon.

“A precise laser-warning system gives a lot of options for defense,” he adds.

While laser-warning systems have been in use by some navies for years, details of their operation and capabilities have always been closely guarded. “This type of information would be useful to ungodly people,” Slade remarks. His observation especially rings true in the littorals, where insurgents and hybrid forces can be expected to deploy laser-guided weapons.

Cassidian’s involvement in the technology of Locates could mean that the DRDC is looking to the company to increase the accuracy and speed of detection. Slade says that as a unit of EADS, Cassidian engineers could have access to that company’s airborne and land-based radars and be in a position to apply some of the technology to the TDP.

Locates will doubtless be part of a layered defense system that incorporates hard- and soft-kill countermeasures against laser-guided threats, Slade says. These could include active defense munitions that destroy an incoming rocket or missile, releasing smoke and particulates to disrupt a laser beam and using a jammer that blinds a laser or forces it away from a ship.