The potential role of lasers to defeat unmanned aerial vehicles Part 1: detection, tracking, and target recognition

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV:s) have become an increasing threat in both civilian and military arenas. While military UAV:s often are relatively large and complex, the supply in the civilian hobby market is characterized by small and cheap systems with the capacity to stream high-definition video, carry a variety of other sensors and transport critical goods (eg food or medicine) to hard-to-reach places. The criminal world has quickly realized how UAV:s can be used to smuggle weapons or drugs, for example. Militarily, UAV:s are established for reconnaissance, fire control and electronic warfare operations. Laser-guided weapons from a UAV, is an example of a widely used system for precision operations during later conflicts. This paper examines and summarizes various laser functions and their role for detecting, recognizing, tracking and combating a UAV. The laser can be used as a support sensor to others like radar or IR to detect end recognise and track the UAV and it can dazzle and destroy its optical sensors. A laser can also be used to sense the atmospheric attenuation and turbulence in slant paths, which are critical to the performance of a high power laser weapon aimed to destroy the UAV.