A review of fiber optics technology for military applications

Abstract

For the past two decades, fiber optics technology has been under development in the Army, Navy, and Air Force for applications, which range from fiber optic payout dispensers for air, land, and marine vehicles to fiber optic sensors for vehicle-navigation and environmental sensing and monitoring. Teleoperated weapon systems have been designed to provide the soldier with operator standoff capability, non-line-of-sight targeting, precision kill capability, with unmatched bandwidth. The Government/industry team conducted tremendous research efforts in developing a reliable fiber optic dispenser design, which is part of the data transmission link between a launch platform and a weapon. This paper reviews the advanced fiber optic technology, which includes automated fiber winding, and pack mechanics and payout dynamics models for producing stable fiber optic payout dispensers and thermally symmetric fiber optic gyroscope coils for operations in military environments. Also, non-destructive fiber optic techniques for measuring distributed strain and temperature in wound fiber packs will be discussed. The findings of the novel technique adopted for fiber pack quality verification are also discussed. Finally, the results of research efforts that are underway to develop low cost, high performance, miniature fiber optic gyroscopes for use in tactical weapon systems are presented.