Broadband zoom collimator for installation on a flight motion simulator at the KHILS facility

A broadband, low-distortion, 2:1 zoom collimator has been designed for projection of infrared scenes in the spectral region of 3.0 to 12.0 micrometers. This collimator provides dynamic scenes for the Kinetic Kill Vehicle Hardware-in-the Loop Simulation (KHILS) facility for testing of missile seekers and other FLIRs. This system, the Target Simulator Optical System (TSOS) is similar to the WISP Optical System already installed at KHILS by Brashear LP, but is lightweighted to allow mounting onto the outside axis of a Flight Motion Simulator. This paper explains the general requirements of the projection collimator optics and describes the system design, assembly and test. The collimator projects dynamic scenes generated by two 1024 x 1024 or 512 x 512 arrays of resistive-emitter elements. The system is composed of four off-axis, powered mirrors, a beamcombiner, spectral filters and array windows. Three of the mirrors are moveable to accommodate changing the field-of-view. Distortion is less than 1.0% at any field position.