PATUXENT RIVER NAVAL AIR STATION, MD—The Vision Laboratory in NAVAIR’s Human Systems Department has developed a new device that gives aviators instant notice in the cockpit when they are on the receiving end of laser radiation potentially hazardous to their eyesight.

The Laser Event Recorder is an unassuming looking green box – smaller than a package of macaroni and cheese – with three colored LEDs on the back to tell a pilot or crewmember if they are being targeted by a laser, and whether that laser can damage their eyes. Green means the system is functioning and everything is normal, yellow means a laser is pointed at them but is not an eye hazard, and red means they are being targeted by a laser that threatens their vision.

The new LER not only gives simple feedback to the crew at the time of a laser event, but also records detailed information onto a compact flash card for later analysis by intelligence officers, medical staff or other aircrews, said Jerri Tribble, Ph.D., research physicist and technical lead for the Navy team developing the laser event recorder.

The presentation is simple, but what goes on inside the little box is a sophisticated process of data analysis that has never before been achieved in a device of this type and size, said Jim Sheehy, Ph.D., chief scientist and chief technology officer for Human Systems. Though other laser detectors are in use by the fleet and other services, Sheehy said the units do not provide “real-time, medically relevant” information to the crews as they are flying their missions. Sensors currently in use can’t cover the complete range of laser threats, nor can they let aviators know whether or not a laser pointed in their direction is dangerous to their eyes.

For Navy and Marine Corps aircrews, being on the receiving end of a laser is never good news. It may mean they are being targeted for harassment with a harmless laser pointer. Or it could mean that an air defense system is tracking them and acquiring their range. If the laser doesn’t get you, in other words, the missile might.

“There are anti-personnel systems out there that are designed to make it very hard to do your mission, while even something as seemingly innocuous as a casino’s laser light show or laser pointer can temporarily blind aircrew and pose a hazard to aircraft many miles distant,” Sheehy said.

Not knowing whether an exposure is eye-safe or not can force an end to a mission, Tribble said. Laser systems aviators may encounter span the spectrum from the visible range to the infrared. Some are pulsed while others are continuous, and intensity varies widely, Tribble said. With its sensors and integrated global positioning system, the tiny LER not only encodes information about the type of laser that was encountered, but records a JPEG-format digital picture, which allows analysts to see from where the laser emanated. Aircrews on subsequent missions can avoid the threat or target it for elimination, as necessary. In the meantime, medical teams can use the recorded data to better assess the extent of damage that may have been done to a pilot’s vision and how best to treat it.

Designing laser eye protection for the fleet is one of the Vision Laboratory’s top priorities, Sheehy said. However, the fixed-wavelength protection currently in use can’t offer protection against all forms of laser light. Because many lasers fall in the visible portion of the spectrum, protective visors or spectacles must filter out a certain amount of “good” light along with the “bad.” The challenge lies in taking out the right frequencies and intensities to protect against a probable laser threat without compromising a pilot’s ability to see cockpit displays, lighting and other important visual cues.

“We’re always balancing where and how to provide protection,” Sheehy said.

The Office of Naval Research has funded development of the LER under the Warfighter Protection Future Naval Capability program. NAVAIR teamed with OPTRA, Inc., of Topsfield, Mass., which constructed the device to the specifications laid out by Tribble’s team. The program has had a rapid gestation.

“From when the money started flowing to when we had an actual product was a two-year development timeframe,” Sheehy said.

NAVAIR engineers completed a successful outdoor ground test of the major system components in March, and in August tested the fully integrated system. In both trials, the LER proved extremely successful, Tribble said, in identifying various types of lasers, at night and in bright daylight. The system has also proved resistant to being fooled by other light sources.

“We haven’t been able to estimate a false alarm rate yet,” Sheehy said, “because we haven’t gotten any.”

Naval Health Research Center Detachment San Antonio is collaborating with NAVAIR on the testing. In December, Tribble said, the current miniaturized system will get one final ground test to clear it for flight evaluation in the spring. Three of the units will be mounted in the cockpit of an H-60 Seahawk helicopter, one on each side of the instrument panel and the third on the bulkhead behind and between the pilots’ heads, to provide a wide field of view. The H-60 was selected because it would be a likely beneficiary of the LER in the fleet, having a low-and-slow mission profile that makes it particularly vulnerable to laser exposure, Tribble said.

Integration issues will hopefully be minimal, Sheehy said, since the unit operates autonomously. The device is loaded with a compact flash card and four AA batteries, which will power the LER for six to eight hours, then mounted in place using a small universal clip. The current LER models weigh one-and-a-quarter pounds, but Tribble said NAVAIR hopes to reduce the weight to about half a pound. The unit cost is $2,500, but that too is expected to go down as production ramps up. With its combination of portability and affordability, Sheehy said the LER could benefit a range of military and civilian customers; the units could easily mount on armored vehicles, or even be integrated into the gear for individual infantry or special forces troops.

With testing expected to wrap up with the upcoming flight tests, Sheehy said his division is now spreading the word about the capabilities of the new LER within NAVAIR and DoD.

-USN-

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