LELAWS
Low Energy Laser Weapons Simulation
HOST SYSTEMS: PC
PROGRAM LANGUAGE: FORTRAN 77

LELAWS estimates the probability that a target sensor will be jammed or damaged by a low energy laser system. A low energy laser is one which does not operate at power levels sufficiently high to produce thermal “booming” (significant heating of the laser beam channel in the atmosphere) or other phenomena such as air breakdown or plasma formation. LELAWS models both deterministic and stochastic effects on pulsed propagation, which include energy attenuation due to atmospheric absorption and scattering, turbulence-induced beamspread, turbulent beam wander, pointing jitter, initial wavefront distortion, diffraction effects, scintillation, and target aperture averaging. The model is applicable to existing and proposed low energy laser weapons, rangefinders, and target designators. Allowable target sensors include the unaided eye, an eye aided by direct vision optics (DVOs), Image intensifiers (IIs) or night vision devices (NVDs), and vidicons or television imaging devices.

LELAWS is an analysis tool used to evaluate the effectiveness of low energy laser weapons in the anti-sensor role. LELAWS operates in two interactive modes which allow the user to edit the inputs prior to each execution of the model. The first mode displays inputs only when the user requests display via an input directive, while the second mode displays inputs automatically after each edit request. In a single run, LELAWS is able to simulate multiple wavelength effects or parameterize over several variables. The user can write a current set of inputs to a file for use in subsequent runs, or can open and read a previously saved input file to define all the model inputs. The primary measure of effectiveness generated by LELAWS is the probability that a given pulse reaching the target sensor will exceed the damage threshold of the sensor. In the case of bio-optical damage, a variety of thresholds, corresponding to various damage levels or effects may be selected. For electronic sensors such as television or NVDs, the threshold can be chosen to provide for partial degradation or total destruction of sensor functions.