Infrared night vision
In the early 1950s, all infrared night vision devices were active infrared night vision devices. The infrared image converter is usually used as the receiver, and the working band is about 65438 0 micron. At night, you can see people at 100 meters, tanks, vehicles and ships at 1 0 kilometers. Modern infrared night vision equipment mainly includes infrared thermal imager (also known as infrared forward-looking system), infrared TV and improved active infrared night vision device. Infrared thermal imager is a typical infrared night vision equipment. An optical scanning infrared imaging system developed by the United States in the late 1960s provides observation means for night flight and flight in bad weather conditions. Working in 8 ~ 12 micron band, it is generally received by HgCdTe photon detector and cooled by liquid nitrogen. Its tactical and technical performance is one order of magnitude higher than that of the active infrared night vision device. People at 1 km, tanks and vehicles at 5 ~ 10 km, and ships in sight can be observed at night. This infrared thermal imager has been improved many times. By the early 1980s, standardized and modular systems appeared in many countries. Designers can choose different components to assemble the required infrared thermal imager, which provides a simple, economical and interchangeable night vision equipment for the military. Infrared night vision equipment has been widely used in the army, navy and air force. For example, it is used as observation equipment for tanks, vehicles, airplanes, ships and so on. Night vision of light weapons, fire control systems of tactical missiles and artillery, monitoring and observation equipment at the front of the battlefield, and individual reconnaissance equipment. In the future, the thermal imaging system composed of staring focal plane array will be developed, and the tactical and technical performance will be further improved.
infrared guidance
In the mid-1950s, the United States, Britain, France and other countries successively developed first-generation infrared guided air-to-air tactical missiles such as Sidewinder, Firelight and Matra. The infrared seeker of the missile adopts uncooled lead sulfide detector, and its working band is 1 ~ 3 microns. It can only carry out tail-chasing attacks on enemy planes and is easily disturbed by sunlight. With the development of infrared technology, the infrared guidance system is becoming more and more perfect. Since the 1960s, practical infrared systems have appeared in three atmospheric windows, and the attack mode has also developed from rear-end collision to omni-directional attack. The guidance mode has also been widely used in dozens of tactical missiles such as air-to-air, ground-to-air, shore-to-ship and ship-to-ship missiles by full infrared guidance (point source guidance and imaging guidance) and composite guidance (infrared/TV, infrared/radio command, infrared/radar infrared point source guidance system). It is predicted that the point source guidance system will still be one of the main guidance methods of the above tactical missiles by the early 1990s. The development of infrared imaging guidance system began in the mid-1970s. Compared with infrared point source guidance system, it provides more information, stronger recognition ability and higher guidance accuracy. In the early 1980s, it was used in the Mavericks air-to-ground missile. With the successful development of focal plane array devices, the infrared imaging guidance system will further improve the recognition ability and make the missile have the ability of autonomous attack.
Infrared reconnaissance
Infrared reconnaissance equipment for ground (water), air and air includes infrared camera, infrared scanner, infrared telescope, infrared thermal imager and active infrared imaging system. Ground infrared reconnaissance equipment is mainly infrared thermal imager and active infrared night vision device. The infrared periscope used on the submarine has the function of reaching out of the water and quickly scanning for one week, and then displaying and observing after being retracted. Surface ships can monitor the invasion of enemy planes and ships with the help of infrared detection and tracking system. In the early 1980s, point source detection systems were mostly used. The plane's head-on detection distance is 20 kilometers, and the tail chase is about 100 kilometers. The observation distance of strategic missiles in the active phase is greater than 1000 km. Infrared tracking head combined with cinetheodolite and lidar can also be used for shooting range measurement. In World War II, the military reconnaissance plane used infrared false color photography and achieved obvious reconnaissance effect. However, infrared film is only sensitive to infrared radiation below 0.9 micron, which is difficult to preserve. Since the 1960s, airborne infrared reconnaissance equipment mainly used infrared scanning cameras, and later used thermal cameras. Infrared scanning camera is a kind of equipment that images of target and background are scanned by optics, converted by photoelectricity and electro-optics, and then irradiated on visible light film for imaging. In the 1960s, the angular resolution of this equipment was only 0.5milliradians (that is, at the altitude of 1000m, it could be separated by 0.5 m). The resolution of modern infrared scanning cameras has been improved by an order of magnitude. Space infrared reconnaissance equipment has been used in missile early warning satellites, meteorological satellites, land satellites and photographic reconnaissance satellites. Missile early warning satellite can use airborne infrared telescope to detect incoming strategic missiles flying out of the atmosphere in real time and monitor their flight. Military meteorological satellites can use airborne dual-channel line scanners to shoot global cloud images. Land satellites can use airborne mid-far infrared band equipment for strategic reconnaissance. Photographic reconnaissance satellites can use the high-resolution infrared imaging equipment on board to scout and monitor each other's military targets and activities day and night.
Infrared countermeasure
The application of infrared countermeasure technology can greatly reduce the function of the opponent's infrared detection and identification system, and even make it ineffective. Countermeasures can be divided into two categories: evasion and deception. Evasion is to use camouflage equipment to hide military facilities and weapons and equipment, so that the other party cannot detect its own infrared radiation source. Camouflage equipment mainly includes infrared camouflage net and anti-infrared paint. In the early 1980s, they only worked in the band of 1 ~ 3 microns, and could deal with some infrared cameras and scanners, but they could do nothing about infrared thermal imager. Deception is to lure the other side's infrared detection system with a radiation source similar to its own infrared radiation wavelength but stronger. This active countermeasure device includes infrared bait and jammer. The former such as tracer, fuel tank, etc. The latter is modulated strong infrared source. Most of them are installed on airplanes and warships to distract the incoming infrared guided missiles. Until the mid-1980s, this kind of active countermeasure device was difficult to deal with the infrared system working in the 8 ~ 12 micron band. In order to counteract the influence of infrared countermeasure technology, modern infrared system has taken countermeasures, such as adopting two-color technology and multi-mode tracking technology.
In addition, infrared technology can also be used in military communication, alarm, toxic gas monitoring, ammunition detonation and regional alert.
Looking at the military application of infrared technology, it can be summarized as: providing troops with night action and combat capability, providing military information for troops, improving the hit accuracy of weapon systems and improving the anti-electronic interference ability of weapon systems. Infrared technology will have more and more influence on strategy, tactics and military action.