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A simultaneously broadband laser has been developed for laser radar (LADAR) applications. Simultaneous broadband operation is important in enabling rapid (single pulse) data measurement, avoiding atmospheric scintillation or turbulence effects that can dog a more conventional laser which is sequentially tuned to a series of probe wavelengths. The laser is based on an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) operating in a non-collinear critical phase matching geometry, thereby enabling broadband operation. p-Barium Borate (BBO) is pumped by a frequency tripled NdYag laser to achieve lasing from 500-1220nm. The laser is further able to simultaneously lase at an arbitrary series of narrow wavelengths chosen to correspond to the absorption lines of a trace gas. The laser has been demonstrated with an output pulse energy exceeding 4OmJ with an instantaneous full bandwidth greater than l5Onm in the visible. The paper describes the current state of this laser development programme. Laboratory and test trial results are presented.

We describe a comparison of fixed and adaptive clutter cancellation processes applied to measured Multi-Function Radar (MFR) data in a littoral environment. The adaptive filters require estimates of the clutter covariance and comparisons of different strategies for obtaining this are made. The results for the adaptive filters generally show substantially improved target detectabilities over the non-adaptive filters.

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