Compact, low cost, accurate hostile fire detection solutions are essential to effectively protect aircraft against small arms, RPGs, mortars, anti-aircraft artillery, and surface to air missiles. Detecting and classifying these types of threats is complicated by many factors including the need for full 360° coverage, requirement for high probability of detection with low false alarms, as well as variances in real world signatures. There is also the problem of having to process an enormous amount of data to cover the required spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution needed to produce a confident threat nomination. This effort is focused on developing an Uncooled Multi-Spectral sensor system specifically designed to be a low cost, compact, wide field of view, multi-spectral sensor for airborne hostile fire detection and discrimination. This practical approach will focus on implementing a novel optical design along with relatively cost effective uncooled infrared imaging sensor technologies to efficiently ascertain the critical spatial, spectral, and temporal information needed to detect and discriminate muzzle flash and plume signatures at a significantly high confidence level.
Benefits: The novel UMiS imaging approach will have a significant impact on other related future uncooled applications. This sensor detection system design can be assimilated to airborne platforms as well as ground combat vehicles, man portable sights, unattended sensors, etc. Furthermore, the technology could incorporate alternative or even additional spectral band capabilities including providing context imagery. This design concept could also translate to other non DoD uses requiring specific discreet event detections such as security and manufacturing applications.
Keywords: uncooled, hostile fire, detection, discrimination, SWIR, microbolometer, muzzle flash, spectral imaging
