Tactical HEL Weapon Alignment System Architecture Options and Trade Offs

Weight, footprint, complexity and jitter characteristics of current Beam Control Systems (BCS) preclude their becoming practical for many applications. BCS must be smaller, lighter and more stable to fully realize the potential of new laser device technologies. Phase I of this SBIR, entitled OTHELA (Optimized Tactical HEL Architecture), provided an on-gimbal beam control system (OGBCS) concept, complete with a ZMAX optical layout, a composite structural design, and innovative beam control concepts, which established the feasibility of performing all beam control functions completely on-gimbal. The specified system exhibits lightweight, minimal footprint, minimal high power mirror count and superior stabilization characteristics. In addition to clever optical and structural design, OTHELA required innovative beam control concepts in order to perform all conventional beam control functions on gimbal. This Phase II effort performs the necessary laboratory demonstrations to provide risk reduction of the innovative adaptive optics and the innovative tracking alignment and stabilization concepts that are necessary to implement the OGBCS concept.