Sanders Demonstrates Fiber Optic Cable Transmission Path for IRCM.

NASHUA, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 28, 1999--

Sanders, a Lockheed Martin Company, has successfully demonstrated the first military use of fiber optic technology combined with an all-band laser source for infrared countermeasures (IRCM) applications. The power available from the all-band laser, together with the flexibility and low cost of fiber optic cables, promise to greatly improve performance of infrared countermeasures against IR missiles while reducing weight, complexity, and cost.

Tom Evans, Sanders' program manager for the Multispectral Countermeasures (MSCM) program said, "This demonstration showed that fiber optic technology provides a highly effective means of directing laser energy in an IR countermeasures system." Currently, similar laser jammers use a more traditional optical coupling to direct the energy.

The tests, held last month at Sanders' Merrimack, N.H., test range, featured a modified Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasures (ATIRCM) directable jam head to support a fiber optic path from the laser through the jam head output aperture. The Sanders-designed laser system generated more than four watts of jamming energy into a mid-IR fiber optic cable. The fiber optic cable, developed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, performed perfectly without damage and with only negligible optical loss. The effort also verified the precise pointing accuracy of the ATIRCM system using the fiber optic technology.

The demonstration was conducted under the U.S. Army's MSCM Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) program. Sanders received a contract from the Army's Communications and Electronics Command (CECOM) in December 1996 to develop and demonstrate countermeasures against IR missiles as well as Pre-Planned Product Improvements (P3I) for IRCM technology for ATIRCM hardware and other assets.

Future demonstrations under the MSCM ATD will include the use of a multi-band semiconductor laser as an IRCM source. Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Lincoln Labs in Lexington Mass., in support of the U.S. Air Force's Phillips Lab and CECOM, is providing semiconductor laser materials for the fabrication of the semiconductor laser. The semiconductor laser, developed by Decade Optical Systems of Albuquerque, N.M., will be connected by fiber optic cables to the Agile Eye directable jam head that was designed by Sanders for the U.S. Navy's Tactical Aircraft Directional Infrared Countermeasures (TADIRCM) program.

Sanders is an operating company of the Lockheed Martin Electronics Sector, a leader in the design, development and manufacture of electronic systems for global defense, civil and commercial markets. In addition to aircraft self-protection systems, Sanders is a major producer of tactical surveillance and intelligence systems for all branches of the armed forces. Other major business areas include microwave, mission and space electronics, and automated mission planning systems.