When pointed to the ground, most laser guidance will form a straight line at a lower speed, but this line can be distorted with hypersonic vehicles. A University of Central Florida team was recently awarded $500,000 from the Department of Defense via the University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics (UCAH) to address disturbances that vehicles encounter in hypersonic conditions. The project is led by Dr. Subith Vasu, a professor at the University of Central Florida and an expert in spectroscopy and optical diagnostics.
The impact of this research will help quantify the deviation of laser guidance in hypersonic flight and assist with proper guidance and navigation for hypersonic vehicles.
Learn more about this research on laser guidance and hypersonic flight.