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TSL
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Specifications:
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TSL = Tri Service Laser
Built by :
- AVCO
- AFWL at SOR (Sandia Optical Range) (now called AFRL)
- Hughes Aircraft : water cooled optics
Location : (3 lasers, one laser for each service)
- U.S. Army, Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama
- U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Chesapeake Bay Annex, Maryland
- U.S. Air Force Weapons Laboratory (AFWL), Kirtland Air Force Base (AFB)
the Air Force TSL was later referred to as the AFL I (Air Force Laser I)
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- Date : April, 1972
- Type : Gas dynamic laser CO2 - N2 - H2O
(unstable resonator)
- Power : 100 kW
- Weight : 32,000 kg
- Range : 500-5,000 meters
- Pointing Accuracy : 25 mradians
- Focal Spot Size : 5.2 cm at 1,000 m
- Cost : $4.7 million U.S. for AFL I
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- Laser:
- Laser at TRW
- Laser at AFWL, Sandia
- Performance: DELTA test (Drone Experimental Laser Test and Assessment)
- First time a high energy laser shot down a flying target
- Northrop MQM-33B Radio Controlled Aerial Target (RCAT)
- Weight : 112 kg
- Length : 3.6 m
- Speed : 320 km/h
- Engine : 4 cylinder internal combustion located in nose.
- Comment : unstable resonator configuration
- Comment : 10 cm aerodynamic window (curtain of nitrogen) to extract laser beam from the resonator
- Comment : a critical aspect of the design was carefully matched hose lengths
that feed the CO2 gas
into the combustion chamber to reduce pressure variations in the resonator
and improve wavefront quality and diffuser reliability
- FTT - Field Test Telescope
- Telescope on a vehicle with a roll-off roof
- Telescope (front view)
- Built by : Hughes Aircraft
- Date : October, 1970
- Cost : $4 million U.S.
- Weight : 900 kg
- Size : 1.8 meters high
- Focal Spot Size : 5.2 cm at 1,000 m
- Pointing Accuracy : 25 mradians
- Range : 500-5,000 meters
- Mirror Reflectivity : near 100 %
- Mirror Load : < 250 kW for 15 s
- Water cooled optics (except primary mirror)
- Primary mirror : 80 cm, un-cooled, its surface area is sufficiently large for effective convective and radiative cooling
- Passive Infrared Tracking Sensor : 3-5 mm
- Optical Band Sensor : 6 times magnification. Improves lock when IR source fades during target maneuvers.
Compensates for strong signal produced when laser begins to heat the target.
Does not loose track of the fainter IR lock-on point when target turns or when the sun glints off the fuselage.
- Comment: Simplified vibration compensation when compared to ABL optics
- Mount : three-gimbaled telescope stabilized by two gyroscopes
- Two hydraulically actuated inner gimbals for fine tuning azimuth and elevation
- Outer gimbal provides coarse azimuth and elevation control
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