Why LADAR?

• High Resolution and Data Rich

  • Angular Resolution Of Imaging Infrared (0.1 mrad)

  • Range Resolution Of Synthetic Aperture Radar (0.25 - 0.5 ft)

  • 3-D Information (Angle-Angle-Range)

• Signature Stability

  • Physical Dimensions of Target

  • Independent of Weather, Temperature, Atmospherics

• Simplified Mission Planning

  • Single Reference, Independent of

Attack Aspect

• Easily Adaptable to Navigation Functions

  • Landmark Updates, Obstacle Avoidance

• ATR Enabler

  • Robust Detection, Classification, Identification

  • High Countermeasure Resistance

  • Target Detection Under Foliage / Camouflage

For the problem of autonomously detecting and classifying correct surface targets, amid all sorts of likely but false targets, ladar has some unique advantages over other passive sensors or even radars.

Some of the reasons are listed here. The key advantage is that ladar can produce high resolution three dimensional images that are mostly invariant to environmental conditions.

Passive Imaging Infrared (IIR) sensor can produce high resolution imagery, but only in two dimensions – angle and angle. Moreover, IR sensing is subject to vagaries of temperature variation, to time of day, operating conditions, sun exposure, etc.

Ladar sensing, on the other hand, can provide the additional dimension of range and the return signature is independent of vagaries such as mentioned above.