Contact: Tom Ramstack
Phone: (301) 585-3450
e-mail: tramstack@aol.com

NEW LASER DOME DETECTS STEALTH AIRCRAFT, EVADES SMART BOMBS

    A new U.S. patent has created an opportunity for the United States to develop a system that can detect airborne Stealth aircraft – even at night – while at the same time evading laser-guided smart bombs and missiles. If high-intensity lasers are used with the “lidar-based air defense system,” the Stealth aircraft, bombs and missiles also could be destroyed in mid-air.

    “This device gives the United States a jump on other countries that are developing or have acquired Stealth technology and laser-guided bombs,” said inventor Tom Ramstack. “It’s only a matter of time before the same technology that has given our military an advantage is used against us.”

    In essence, the invention is a dome outfitted with lidars that create a grid of lasers, or laser net, in the surrounding atmosphere. Stealth technology works by deflecting the relatively long radio waves used in radar systems. However, lasers have an infinitesimally small wavelength that could not be deflected by Stealth technology. Any Stealth aircraft, or traditional aircraft, that enter the atmosphere around the lidar dome would be detected. Assuming high-energy lasers are used, they also could be destroyed.

    The grid, or laser net, could fill a circumference extending many miles, thereby making it possible to protect entire cities with a single lidar dome. In addition, unlike radar, the lidars could not be jammed.

    The basic technology is similar to laser guns used by highway patrolmen to catch speeders. The difference is that the lidar dome would use many of the laser guns, arrayed in a grid, with high-intensity lasers and a single command and control system for tracking the speed, distance and azimuth of aircraft within its perimeter.

    Lidar domes also could be used to divert and evade laser-guided smart bombs and missiles. Smart technology works by using an optical guidance system on bombs and missiles that follows a laser signature to a target.

    The lidar domes would direct lasers into surrounding hillsides, clouds, onto the aircraft that launched them and anything else that falls within the trajectory of the lasers. As a result, the guidance systems on the bombs and missiles would have no clear laser signature that they could follow to a single target. Instead, they would get misdirected to some useless target.

    In addition to being the first to deploy such a technology, the U.S. military would be better prepared in case some hostile country was to acquire it. Unfortunately for the United States, the concept is simple and the price tag would be relatively small for most governments.

    The inventor prefers to license the invention to the U.S. government. Otherwise, he wants to license it to a defense contractor.

    The timeline for introducing the laser-based air defense system into the marketplace will depend on how quickly the inventor can find the partners – and possibly government grants – needed to build a prototype and begin manufacturing. The U.S. Patent is No. 6,396,577, granted May 28, 2002.




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