Typically, air-to-air missiles built to this day use either radar or infrared guidance to steer a missile on to the target. This paper presents the development of a multisensor seeker for medium range air-to-air missiles which would contain active infrared (IR) and radio frequency (RF) modes, as well as passive IR and RF modes. The principal technology issues identified, and techniques proposed include a cylindrically shaped, frequency scanned, conformal RF antenna array and a gimballed heterodyne/direct double detector IR sensor in an array configuration. The IR sensor consists of a dual active/passive imaging system mounted on a gimballed platform, substituted at the focal plane of the optical system. Alternative design options for both RF and IR sensors are also suggested.

Date Published: 1 October 1990
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 1306, Sensor Fusion III, (1 October 1990); doi: 10.1117/12.34729

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1306:
Sensor Fusion III
Robert C. Harney, Editor(s)