Fiber-Optic Guidance for Missiles

This paper describes the technique of fiber-optic guidance for missiles developed by the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command (USACECOM) and the U.S. Army Missile Command (USAMICOM) with the help of Hughes Aircraft Company (HAC) and ITT Electro-Optical Products Division (EOPD) under contract DAAK80-80-C-0595. This paper presents the basic principles of the guidance link used in the fiber-optic guided missile (FOG-M) and describes the fiber-optic technologies that make FOG-M possible. A series of successful test flights have proven the viability of FOG-M.