2. INTRODUCTION
Fiber optics which is a part of a larger or more general field called
photonics, is concerned with the use of glass fibers carrying photons
to complement electron carrying wires.
This technology is now well established in long distance fiber optic
telecommunication and rapidly growing in other areas like military
application , biomedical application ,etc...
3. WHY FIBER OPTICS
1.REPEATERLESS COMMUNICATIONS
Fiber Optic –Repeaters every 16kms or more
Coax-Repeaters every 500m
2.WEIGHT
Coax cable weighs approx. five times more than equivalent lengths of
fiber optic cable
3.HIGHER BANDWIDTH
Optimized for applications requiring multiplexed voice,data,and video
signals.
4.SECURITY
Not affected by EMI OR RFI
Very difficult to tap. Reduces need for encryption
5.RUGGED
4. WEAPON SYSTEM
The only true fiber optic weapon is FOG-M (20-40Km).
Used against helicopters and ground vehicles.
FOG-M concepts are hit to kill weapons and use a man in the loop for
guidence.
5. Working Principles:-
A fiber optic cable that is paid out from the missle during flight is
used to transmit a picture back to the gunner from a camera (TV or
IIR).
Guidance commands are also transmitted from the gunners position to
the missle through this fiber link.
Core-silica doped with germanium or phosphorus
Cladding- pure silica
Ultra violet clear polymer coating
Diameter 200-250microns
Copper cable lacks bandwidth necessary to transmit television
6. Optical computing
Fiber optics plays an important role in optical computing.
Usually copper wire is used for the transmission of data or
information.
But due to the heating effect of copper optical fiber is used instead
which provides great computational speed and no heating effect.
7. Surveillance /sensors
Fiber sensors is used in surveillance because of their extremely rugged
characteristics and ability to monitor a wide range of parameters.
It is also used to track pressure impulses.
For examples, in Vietnam remote sensors were used behind enemy
lines and pressure sensors/seismic sensors were buried along the road
to determine the number of vehicle that passes a point.
8. Fiber optics Aboard Vehicle
Fiber optics is used in aboard vehicle because they are lighter than
copper and are immune to EMI and lightning strikes making electrical
shielding unnecessary.
Fiber optic cable transmit optical signal from the flight control
computer to the control surfaces at the ship’s rear
9. Conclusion:-
We have seen so far the application of fiber optics in millitary
purposes.
Now a days, research and development of discrete sources and
detectors has improved the performance and lowered the cost of
optical transmission system.
