Laser Communication and Navigation for UAS in an RF-Denied Environment

The increasing capability and availability of airborne, ground-based and naval unmanned systems is creating an interest in the use of unmanned swarms, as well as the need to defend against them when used by opposing forces. Specifically UAS can be used in a number of ways: as sensor platforms, collaboratively building a combined awareness of the battlefield below, as networked communications platforms, a ‘flying internet of things’ acting as a relay for each other and manned or unmanned assets on the ground or at sea, and as a defense against opposing UAVs.
The main weakness of these swarms is that these systems rely on a permissive RF environment for their command, control and navigation needs. Experience shows that GNSS jamming is becoming increasingly common, and command and telemetry frequency jamming is considered the most effective CUAS technology on the market.
We propose to investigate the use of laser technology to maintain navigation and C3 capability when RF is not available. The principal scenario for this is a drone in the air losing navigation and telemetry, after which a ground station will use a combined EO/IR/laser system to acquire the drone’s position, and a laser communication link to re-establish full functionality.

The project DAP/21-07 is financed under the DFR call.