Laser-projector targets realistic weapons training

Laser-projector targets realistic weapons training

The US Army Advanced Technical Office at Yuma Proving Grounds (Yuma, AZ) awarded a two-year, $1.5 million contract to the Corporation for Laser Optics Research (COLOR; Portsmouth, NH) for a large-screen-display imaging system to project lifelike moving targets. Under the contract, the system will be used for outdoor "live-fire" exercises to evaluate new weapons and train operational personnel. Hit scoring is done by laser designators or imaging systems on the weapons.

The company`s ColorVision laser-projector technology combines a solid-state, pulsed high-power blue-emitting laser with solid-state red and green pulsed output to create full-color real-time video images (see Laser Focus World, Oct. 1995, p. 43). For the Army, COLOR will adapt the technology to produce both visible- and infrared-wavelength images to serve as targets under day and night conditions. Andrew Hooper, chief of the Advanced Technical Office, says that the Army was impressed with the "ability to project clear, precise images from a long distance outdoors." Peter Chiasson, COLOR president and CEO, notes that the laser projectors could eventually be used in "targeting systems at many of the Army`s hand-held and mobile weapons training facilities around the world."