Abstract

This paper will describe the laser radar technology program being conducted by the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) in support of the Global Protection Against Limited Strikes (GPALS) and follow-on missions. Concomitant efforts are developing laser radar systems, components, and data bases. Developments in agile optical beam steering technology, coherent CO₂, and direct detection Nd: YAG laser radar systems will be discussed. Investigative measurements of space deployment phenomenology are being conducted using the MIT/Lincoln Laboratory's FIREPOND Research Facility and specially designed payloads lofted aboard sounding rockets from Wallops Island, Virginia, into suborbital trajectories. Compact ranges are being used to make far-field, mono-, and bistatic target dynamics measurements at 10.6 μm, 1.06 μm and 0.53 μm. Details of these programs will be presented.

© 1991 Optical Society of America