AN/PXX-X TLOS

[beachhead1973]

Here is a neat one I stumbled across. Lifted from the never-updated FAS-ORG site.

AN/PXX-X TARGET LOCATION AND OBSERVATION
SYSTEM (TLOS)

The TLOS allows the individual soldier to find threat optical and electro-optical surveillance devices located on tanks, scouts, snipers, etc. Location of these devices will enhance the effectiveness for U.S. forces. TLOS also has capability to provide covert illumination for fire direction, improved night vision sighting and landing zone marking. P3I TLOS will include rangefinding, precise target location, and digital battlefield capability.

TRANSPORTATION CHARACTERISTICS / LIMITATIONS: Weapon mounted, Manportable.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:

1991 Program initiated as part of Laser Countermeasures System (LCMS).

Aug 95 LCMS Production Contract Awarded.

Dec 95 TLOS program restructured by OSD.

Mar 96 Contract mod for production of TLOS.

REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT: Required Operational Capability (ROC) 12 Sep 91.

TYPE CLASSIFICATION: Standard 2QFY96.



I wasn't able to find anything else about this item online, so I guess it got cancelled, eh? Anybody else got anything on this sucker? Sounds pretty cool.

 

[Mr London 24/7]

AN/PLQ-8:

http://www.fbodaily.com/archive/2007/09-September/08-Sep-2007/FBO-01397379.htm

http://nightvisionequipment.tpub.com/14/01-440-9880.htm

 

[beachhead1973]

New name for it, but it does seem the project never got very far. The best data I found mentions the Clinton years...

 

[jsport]

Thinkin Stingray was cancelled and may be mentioned elsewhere. There is/was ongoing research into manportable Optics finders.

 

[bcredman]

The TLOS production contract was awarded in August of 1995, but in December of 1995, the program was restructured to enhance the TLOS capabilities by adding rangefinding, precise target location, and digital battlefield capability with the resultant sensor called the Enhanced TLOS (ETLOS). See page 113 at https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA337392.pdf . However, in 1998, the ETLOS program was cancelled and the funds were redirected to other projects. See page 274 at https://www.asafm.army.mil/Portals/...02001/base budget/justification book/opa2.pdf .

The technique used in (E)TLOS is based on patent US5408099A "Gated image intensifiers for active imaging of reflectors by day or night" of which I am one of the inventors, Brian C. Redman. I worked on the invention and development of TLOS as the target acquisition sensor for the Laser Countermeasure System (LCMS). When the LCMS program was cancelled due to the Vienna Convention, the target acquisition sensor for LCMS was carried forward on its own as TLOS and then ETLOS.

Similar sensor systems for the detection of the cat's eye retroreflection of laser or LED illumination from optical systems, also known as optical augmentation, were under development by various military organizations in the 1980s and 1990s. (E)TLOS had the distinction of being compact enough to be rifle mounted while still having a multi-kilometer acquisition range during day and night operations. After the cancellation of (E)TLOS in 1998, other similar compact sensors were developed. For example, in 2001 the company Torrey Pines Logic produced the Mirage sensor, see https://www.sbir.gov/sbirsearch/detail/335448 , https://www.nationaldefensemagazine...006july-snipers-cannot-hide-from-laser-sensor and

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzh6lqw25ok
.

Similar handheld devices are still being made and can be bought from various vendors. Just do a search on the terms: sniper detection laser and restrict the time of the search to the last few years to see what's out there now.

 

[bcredman]

The May 1995 report on U.S. Blinding Laser Weapons by the Human Rights Arms Project at this link https://www.hrw.org/reports/1995/Us2.htm provides details on the LCMS and Stingray systems mentioned elsewhere in this thread. It also discusses many other such systems, such as Saber 203, Outrider, Dazer, Cobra, Perseus, Coronet Prince, Compass Hammer, and Cameo Bluejay.