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Electro-Optical Systems
To see and yet not be seen, Is the character of modern warfare. Significantly, current and future weapon systems are capable of easily wiping out targets, in the air or on the ground, once detected and identified. T his of course places incentives upon all parties, incentives to locate and reliably recognise the enemy if possible without being detected in the process. Though radar is an effective sensor, particularly in its advanced forms, it has a fundamental weakness as it requires that the transmitter illuminate the target with energy. In doing so it identifies itself and betrays its location, not to speak of its vulnerability to deceptive or other ECM. Electro-optical (EO) sensors, on the other hand, do not have these deficiencies, as they are entirely passive, sensing energy emitted by or reflected off the target itself.
Compared to radar, EO systems are really newcomers to the field of warfare, the first serious application being the use of FLIR (Forward Looking Infra-Red) systems during the Viet Nam war, to provide gunship crews with night vision. Flir proved to be a great success, enemy personnel and equipment betraying their location with their own heat emissions. This led to a substantial increase in development, yielding a broad family of Flir systems by the late seventies. Viet Nam also saw to the development of another family of EO system, the stabilised TV telescope. One of the basic aspects of the air war over Hanoi was the necessity to visually identify hostiles prior to weapon launch (a very rational approach bearing in mind the low reliability of IFF [IdentificationFriend Foe] systems, as used at the time). This however placed the larger US aircraft at a significant disadvantage, as the NVAF MiGs would see them first and thus had the option of initiating the engagement on their own terms. With the following generation of fighters, the F-14 and F-15, being even larger than the well sized Phantoms and Thuds, the Americans were confronted with a ridiculous situation – sophisticated weapon systems with standoff missiles being forced into close-quarters dogfights with vastly inferior but small and nimble Russian fighters. The TV telescope reversed the situation, allowing reliable visual identification at ranges beyond those necessary to even detect the target with the naked eye.
A further step in EO system development was the subsequent coupling of an EO system, Flir or TV, with a laser designator. Boresighted with the EO device, this enabled the recognition and subsequent laser illumination of surface targets, allowing surgical strikes with laser-guided munitions. With increasing performance and decreasing cost, EO systems also began to proliferate into the area of missile guidance, resulting in the Maverick and Walleye families, followed up by the heavyweight GBU-15 weapons.
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