The Laser Early Warning Detection System is one of those technologies that is going to save lives. In fact, it was developed by Attollo Engineering from their OMNir technology at the direction of Air Force Research Labs because of a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan where a US aircraft mistakenly bombed US troops.
LEWDS is lightweight and mounts to the top of the helmet or other equipment. It uses a common CR123A battery.
It offers a haptic alert (user programmable) if it is lased with 1064 & 1550nm energy which is generated by:
– Low Eye-safe military laser rangefinders (LRFs) used for precision target locating
– Low frequency gimbal-mounted LRFs
– High frequency handheld LRFs
– PRF-coded Laser Target Markers (LTMs) used for handoff to laser designator systems
– PRF-coded Laser Target Designators
(LTDs) used for guiding laser guided bombs
In addition to direct targeting LEWDS also detects “Danger Close” illumination and is designed to reject false alarms.
LEWDS does not need to be fielded to all. Because it detects Laser energy generated from above, Terminal Attack Controllers and small unit leaders are the best use of the device as they are most likely to have contact with Close Air Support aircraft to alert them they are placing friendly troops in danger.
LEWDS is available from www.quanticotactical.com.
Would it let the AC-130s know that who are friendlies and can it pick up a pew 15?
I hope this doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
If the adversary is technically advanced enough to understand 1064nm laser ranging they are advanced enough to build these themselves. Once you get in a peer to peer environment or near peer environment you can kiss lasers (aiming, ranging and targeting) goodbye for the mostpart
Even if it did, and a bad guy knew he was being targeted, what is he realistically going to do?
That’s like saying the RWR on a/c is useless bro.
Two totally different things. This doesn’t tell you what is painting you or where it is, just that it’s happening which is important if it’s not supposed to be. It gives the TAC a heads up and time to prevent a weapon release in the case the he is the unintended target.