Talk on EO/IR Technology and Infrared Countermeasure Applications for Commercial Aviation

Electro-optics and Infrared (EO/IR) has traditionally been an essential enabling technology for military space and avionics applications, both tactical and strategic. They are correspondingly valuable in commercial/civilian applications ranging from navigation to weather monitoring. The technology supports both passive systems, i. e. focal-planearray- based for target/object detection as well as active systems with lasers for ranging, 3D-imaging (lidars), target pointing/designating, and infrared countermeasures (IRCM). This talk will be a general review of the technology and a discussion of emerging applications. In particular, IRCM for commercial aviation security to counter the MANPADS threat (shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles) is a topic of most recent interest. Public-domain information (unclassified) will be used exclusively to review the current status of commercial IRCM. The talk will conclude with a discussion of the technology trend and potential applications in the future, such as state-of-the-art systems with integrated intelligent algorithms for robotic/unmanned platforms (UAV) capable of obstacle avoidance, self-navigating, and automatic target/object recognition for surveillance and rescue missions.