Date of Award

9-15-2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Department of Operational Sciences

First Advisor

John O. Miller, PhD.

Abstract

This thesis addresses two primary concerns relating to Directed Energy (DE) models and tests: need for more use of Design of Experiment (DOE) in structuring DE models and tests, and lack of modeling atmospheric variability in High Energy Laser (HEL) weapon system propagation models and tests. To address these concerns we use a DOE factorial design to capture main, interaction, and non-linear effects between modeled weapon design and environmental factors in a well defined simulated Air-to-Ground HEL engagement scenario. The scenario modeled considers a B1-B aircraft in the 2022 timeframe equipped with an HEL weapon, irradiating a ground target from 30K feet altitude. The High Energy Laser End-to-End Operational Simulation (HELEEOS), developed by the AFIT Center for Directed Energy (CDE), is used to model HEL propagation. Atmospheric variability is incorporated by using input from the Laser Environmental Effects Definition and Reference (LEEDER) model based on randomly selected daily meteorological data (METAR) for a specific geographic location. Results clearly indicate the practical significance of a number of HEL weapon design and environmental factors, to include a number of previously unidentified interactions and non-linear effects, on the final energy delivered to a target for our modeled scenario.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-OR-MS-ENS-11-27

DTIC Accession Number

ADA549699

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