Cranfield University by Mubarak Al-Jaberi The
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CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY BY MUBARAK AL-JABERI THE VULNERABILITY OF LASER WARNING SYSTEMS AGAINST GUIDED WEAPONS BASED ON LOW POWER LASERS THE DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE, POWER & SENSORS PhD THESIS CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT & TECHNOLOGY THE DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE, POWER & SENSORS PhD THESIS BY MUBARAK AL-JABERI THE VULNERABILITY OF LASER WARNING SYSTEMS AGAINST GUIDED WEAPONS BASED ON LOW POWER LASERS SUPERVISOR: Dr. MARK RICHARDSON HEAD OF ELECTRO-OPTICS GROUP JAN 2006 © Cranfield University, 2006 All rights reserved ii DEDICATION DEDICATED WITH GREAT LOVE, THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER, WHO HAVE ALWAYS SUPPORTED ME DURING MY LIFE WITH THEIR ADVICE AND PRAYERS AND EVERYTHING THAT I NEED. MAY ALLAH BLESS THEM BOTH. ALSO DEDICATED WITH LOVE AND GRATITUDE TO MY LOVELY WIFE, SONS AND DAUGHTER. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to express my deep appreciation and thanks to Dr. Mark Richardson, my supervisor during this research. His professionalism, experience, sense of humour, and encouragement were major factors in the successful completion of this work. He was always available when ever I face a problem to guide me through difficult situations. He spent a great time in reviewing my research and offer valuable guidance, insight, critical comments, and advice. I am also deeply indebted, grateful and appreciative to the organisations and individuals who gave their time to help, advise and support this research project, in particular: • Professor Richard Ordmonroyd, Head of Communications Departments. • Dr. John Coath • Dr. Robin Jenkin • General Saeed Mohammed Khalef Al Rumithy (Chief of ADM & Manpower) • Col. Mohammed Ali Al Nuemi • Maj. Saeed Almansouri • Let. Col. Naif Al-Duwaish • Mr. Ali Al Yabhoni • Cap. Nahar Alsoubei To those whose contributions I have forgotten to mention here due to failure of memory, please accept my apologies and my thanks and appreciation. iv ABSTRACT Laser assisted weapons, such as laser guided bombs, laser guided missiles and laser beam-riding missiles pose a significant threat to military assets in the modern battlefield. Laser beam-riding missiles are particularly hard to detect because they use low power lasers. Most laser warning systems produced so far can not detect laser beam-riding missiles because of their weak emissions which have signals less than 1% of laser range finder power 1. They are even harder to defeat because current counter-measures are not designed to work against this threat. The aim of this project is to examine the vulnerability of laser warning systems against guided weapons, to build an evaluation tool for laser warning sensors (LWS) and seekers, and try to find suitable counter-measures for laser beam-riding missiles that use low power lasers in their guidance systems. The project comes about because of the unexpected results obtained from extensive field trials carried out on various LWRs in the United Arab Emirates desert, where severe weather conditions may be experienced. The objective was to help find a solution for these systems to do their job in protecting the tanks and armoured vehicles crews from such a threat. In order to approach the subject, a computer model has been developed to enable the assessment of all phases of a laser warning receiver and missile seeker. MATLAB & SIMULINK software have been used to build the model. During this process experimentation and field trials have been carried out to verify the reliability of the model. This project will enable both the evaluation and design of any generic laser warning receiver or missile seeker and specific systems if various parameters are known. Moreover, this model will be used as a guide to the development of reliable countermeasures for laser beam-riding missiles. 1 Prof. Richard Ogorkiewiez. Fundamentals of Armour Protection. Advances In Armoured Vehicles v LIST OF TERMS, SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS AFC Amplitude-Frequency Characteristic AFV Armored Fighting Vehicles AOA Angle of arrival APD Avalanche Photodiode APS Active Protection System AT Anti-tank ATGM’s Anti Tank Guided Missiles BNight Night sky spectral brightness B(λ) Spectral Background Brightness CE Chemical Energy 2 Cn Index Structure Parameter 2 CT Temperature Structure Parameter D Diameter of the collector system DIRCM Directed infrared countermeasures systems dλ Spectral bandwidth of the interference filter ECM Electronic Counter-Measures ERA Explosive Reactive Armour f Objective focal length FSAP Full Spectrum Active Protection GUI Graphical User Interface I0(λ) Flux density of sunlight ID Average dark current 2 in Dispersion of the noise current 2 ishot .n Shot noise 2 itherm Thermal noise k Boltzmann constant K Amplification factor kbf Transmission factor of bandpass filter KE Kinetic Energy vi kClouds Clouds reflection coefficient ℓ Size of sensitive area of photodetector LWS Laser Warning Sensor M multiplication factor MBT’s Main Battle Tanks MCD Missile Countermeasures Device NEP Noise Equivalent Power ρ Reflection coefficient from surface PIN Positive-Intrinsic-Negative PA Average power of optical signal PC Power collected at the input of the receiver Pb External Background noise power Pr Internal receiver noise power PΣ Total average noise power RF Feedback resistance RL Load resistance RPG Rocket propelled grenade SACLOS Semi-Active Command to Line of Sight Sbeam The sectional area of the laser beam at distance R SD Area of input lens Sin 2 (t) Useful signal S/N Signal to Noise ratio SPD The sectional area of the photodetector SOJ Stand-off jamming Sn (t) Noise signal Sλ Photodiode spectral sensitivity ta Atmospheric attenuation UAE United Arab Emirates U out (t) Amplification stage output voltage U phd (t) Photodiode output voltage vii Uthresh Threshold voltage X Excess noise factor σ Atmospheric attenuation coefficient µ Coefficient describing the distribution of brightness ψ Solar angle viii LIST OF ORIGINAL PAPERS, CONFERENCES & PRESENTATIONS • 4 Parts Series (Journal of Battlefield Technology) Part I: Accepted Part II: Accepted Part III & Part IV: Final stage • Conference Papers The title of the paper is (The Simulation of Laser-Based Guided Weapons Engagements) Conference name: Defence Security Symposium, SPIE Orlando, 7-21 April 2006 Status: Accepted The Title: [Vulnerability of Laser Warning Systems against Guided Waepons Based on Low Power Lasers] Conference name: RESEARCH STUDENT SYMPOSIUM, 17 th May 2005 • Conference Poster : RESEARCH STUDENT SYMPOSIUM, 17 th May 2004 Title of Poster: [Vulnerability of Laser Warning Systems against Guided Waepons Based on Low Power Lasers] • Conferences Post Graduate Seminar, 18 th November 2003 Post Graduate Seminar, 31 st March 2004 Post Graduate Seminar, 25 th November 2005 ix CONTENTS DEDICATION ................................................................................................................ iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................iv ABSTRACT......................................................................................................................v LIST OF TERMS, SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS .............................................vi LIST OF ORIGINAL PAPERS, CONFERENCES & PRESENTATIONS....................ix CONTENTS......................................................................................................................x List of Tables...................................................................................................................xv List of Figures .............................................................................................................. xvii CHAPTER 1....................................................................................................................21 Introduction .....................................................................................................................21 1.1 Background ...........................................................................................................21 1.2 Present Study.........................................................................................................22 CHAPTER 2....................................................................................................................24 Application Bases of Laser Warning Systems ................................................................24 2.1 Vehicles Survivability Factors ..............................................................................24 2.1.1 Doctrine..........................................................................................................25 2.1.2 Crew Training ................................................................................................25 2.1.3 Vehicle Design ...............................................................................................26 2.1.4 Armour ...........................................................................................................26 2.1.5 Hard Kill Active Protection Systems (APS) ..................................................27 2.1.6 Soft Kill APS..................................................................................................28 2.1.7 Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA)................................................................29 2.2 VEHICLES PROTECTION SYSTEM.................................................................30 2.2.1 Laser Warning System ...................................................................................31