• Laboratories & Facilities
• Climatic Test
  Facilities
• Countermeasures
• Dynamic Testing
  and Facilities
• Electromagnetic Test
  Facilities
• Electronic Warefare
• Aerial Cable Range
• Chemistry Laboratory
• High Energy Laser
  Systems Test Facility
• Information Operations
  Laboratory
• Launch Facilities
• Metallurgy Laboratory
• Pulsed Laser Vulnerability
  Test System (PLVTS)
• Warheads Test Facilities &
  Impact Areas
• Hazardous Test Area
  (HTA)
• Warhead Impact Target
  (WIT)
• National Radar Cross
  Section Test Facility (NRTF)
• Holloman High Speed
  Test Track (HHSTT)
• Acoustic Research
  Complex (ARC)
• Space Facilities
• Airfields

 

Electronic Warefare

Air Defense Electronic Warfare Facility

Air Defense Electronic Warfare Facility provides a quick-reaction capability for the implementation of electronic warfare (EW) techniques to ensure that all elements of the EW threat required for the vulnerability assessment process are addressed. The facility provides a wide range of R&D ECM devices that support air defense EW vulnerability investigations including PATRIOT, THAAD, and Stinger. In addition, support has been provided to other activities including anti-tank systems such as Javelin. The facility supports a wide variety of special purpose equipment, including airborne and ground-based RF jammers, EOCM equipment, passive RFCM equipment, and state-of-the-art field measurement systems. The facility developed, operates, and maintains 112 airborne RF EW systems, 19 airborne EO devices, and a wide variety of ground-based EW emulators and target simulators.

Electronic Warfare Signature Measurement Facility

This mobile facility contains specialized multi-spectral radiometric and imaging measurement systems to characterize static and dynamic targets and EW countermeasures in the backgrounds in which they operate. Results are used in EW simulations, signature modeling validation, and EW analysis. The facility includes laboratory-based data reduction and instrument calibration and checkout/characterization.

Electro-Optical Vulnerability Assessment Facility

The EOVAF consists of a number of laboratory measurement stations that enable quantitative optical cross section, laser jamming, and optical characterization measurements to be performed in the visible, near-IR, mid-IR, and far-IR spectral regions. A number of optical characterization measurements can be performed at the EOVAF including optical density, optical transfer function, minimum resolvable temperature difference, spectral transmission, and detector responsivity. Adjacent to the EOVAF is a 3 km instrumented laser range. Mobile equipment is available to perform measurements of maximum optical detection range and laser jamming susceptibility. Trailer-size mobile targets (visible and thermal) are available to allow the quantitative evaluation of laser-induced degradation in a field environment. The targets also allow baseline optical characterization measurements to be performed on optical systems.

Electro-Optical Range and Tower

The EOVAF consists of a number of laboratory measurement stations that enable quantitative optical cross section, laser jamming, and optical characterization measurements to be performed in the visible, near-IR, mid-IR, and far-IR spectral regions. A number of optical characterization measurements can be performed at the EOVAF including optical density, optical transfer function, minimum resolvable temperature difference, spectral transmission, and detector responsivity.

Adjacent to the EOVAF is a 3 km instrumented laser range. Mobile equipment is available to perform measurements of maximum optical detection range and laser jamming susceptibility. Trailer-size mobile targets (visible and thermal) are available to allow the quantitative evaluation of laser-induced degradation in a field environment. The targets also allow baseline optical characterization measurements to be performed on optical systems.

Electro-Optical Countermeasure Missile Flight Simulator

This facility is a hardware-in-the-loop real-time simulator for assessing the effectiveness of EO air defense missile systems in complex countermeasure environments. The simulator consists of both analog and digital computer systems supplemented by special scene generation hardware and software capable of providing a complex EW environment consisting of decoy flares, EO-jammers, advanced countermeasures devices, and complex backgrounds. The simulator also includes major portions of actual missile guidance and control hardware with software embedded in the simulation loop. Real-time representations are solved for missile dynamics in six degrees of freedom and for target motion in three degrees of freedom. A multiprocessor digital computer solves the missile aerodynamics and propulsion and the relative target-missile geometry. The analog computer models subsystems with bandwidths too high to allow a real-time digital solution, such as the wing servo or gyro transfer function. A second digital computer functions as the simulation controller and supervises the real-time trajectory and field-of-view displays hosted on two PCs.

This facility reduces cost of missile firing tests required to provide survivability and lethality data for inclusion in system analyses. Output data consists of miss distance, missile trajectory information, and missile system parameters. The simulation is validated against actual missile flights to ensure accuracy.

Additionally, this facility also has access to a computer-controlled rate table and various EO devices to assist in characterizing seeker effects that are modeled in the simulator.

Electromagnetic Vulnerability Assessment Facility (EMVAF)

Electromagnetic Vulnerability Assessment Facility (EMVAF) will be used to sustain the Army Research Lab's ongoing mission to evaluate Army weapon systems' survivability against the full spectrum of electromagnetic energy threats on the battlefield and in operations other than war (OOTW). This includes the means to determine weapon systems' survivability against radio-frequency directed energy weapons.

The EMVAF facility includes a 100 ft x 70 ft x 40 ft (30m x 21m x 12m) shielded anechoic chamber with a turntable capable of supporting 100-ton test vehicles, along with a smaller 20 ft x 30 ft x 20 ft (6m x 9m x 6m) shielded anechoic chamber.

Field Mobile Measurement System (FMMS)

The Field Mobile Measurement System (FMMS) is a computer controlled special purpose measurement system that supports EW vulnerability analyses by independently measuring, recording, and certifying EW environments. It can sequentially track up to 12 targets and measure frequency, amplitude, pulse widths, and modulation parameters of various jamming waveforms. The system is housed in a climate-controlled van mounted on a 5-ton truck chassis to provide the capability to relocate to remote sites. The system also features automatic pre and post-mission calibration to ensure the validity of recorded data. On-going upgrades will allow remote site operations, target tracking, and auto emplacement through the use of GPS positioning systems.

Open-Loop Tracking Complex

The OLTC was developed to explore electro-optical (EO) missile system responses to countermeasures environments using simulation scene techniques. The OLTC consists of an automated rate table with scene generation equipment that provides radiation from three broad band xenon arc lamps, target and decoy blackbodies, and an HF/DF chemical laser. Signal conditioning, signal recording, and data logging equipment augment data collection from this facility. Simulation studies to ascertain design weaknesses of an EO missile system design are conducted using an actual missile seeker or a breadboard electronic model of the seeker.

Test Environment Certification Complex

The TECC is a computer controlled receiving and analysis facility that monitors and analyzes complex electronic countermeasure waveforms used in field experiments associated with air defense systems. The TECC consists of a narrowbeam steerable antenna system, multiple RF receivers, and various hardware and software analysis systems. Airborne targets with electronic countermeasures are tracked and measurements of power, frequency, and modulation are made in real-time to serve as the basis for certifying the countermeasures environment during the experiment.

The Simulation Laboratories

The Simulation Laboratories are used for conducting classified electronic warfare investigations of domestic and foreign surface-to-air missiles (both EO/IR and radio frequency guided), anti-radiation missiles, and anti-tank guided missiles. The laboratories, most of which are unique within DOD, are employed in the development, modification, and operation of digital computer software and hardware-in-the-loop simulations with both missile guidance and jammer hardware in the simulation loops. Major equipment items are extensive digital computer networks, missile guidance interfaces, guidance system hardware replicas, and numerous varieties of laboratory instrumentation for collection, recording, and analysis of simulation output. These facilities and simulation systems are unique within DOD because of specific classified data and system capabilities that are not duplicated elsewhere.