TRW Reaches Key Milestone in Laser Tracker Integration

REDONDO BEACH, Calif., Oct. 19 -- TRW and the US Army report that they have achieved a critical integration milestone for the Army's Tactical High Energy Laser/Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (THEL/ACTD) program. This milestone was reached through the successful demonstration of the handoff or information transfer process between two of the weapon's tracking subsystems: its command, control and communications intelligence (C3I) subsystem, and its pointer-tracker subsystem (PTS). In recent tests, this handoff was accomplished for the first time with live in-flight targets.
The first handoff took place on Oct. 12 during live fire tests using Katyusha rockets at the White Sands Missile Range. The THEL/ACTD fire control radar -- part of the C3I subsystem -- detected the rocket shortly after launch. The C3I subsystem sent the rocket trajectory information to the PTS, and a forward-looking infrared, or FLIR, camera within the PTS successfully acquired the rocket.