Armored vehicle, method, and weapon measurement system for determining barrel elevation

A weapon measurement system for an armored vehicle that includes a gun having a barrel adapted to extend at a barrel elevation angle, the weapon measurement system comprising:

• a reference light generator arrangement mountable to the barrel and configured to generate a reference light one of at a single wavelength and within a narrow wavelength band and to diffuse the reference light, thereby defining a distributed reference light;
• and
• an image sensor arrangement mountable to a vehicle body portion of the armored vehicle and comprising:
• an image sensor configured to detect light including positional information associated with the light;
• and
• a filter configured to substantially block light that is at a different wavelength than the distributed reference light while allowing the distributed reference light to pass through to the image sensor for determining the barrel elevation angle.

A method for determining barrel elevation of a barrel of a gun of an armored vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:

• generating a reference light at one of a single wavelength and within a narrow wavelength band via a reference light generator arrangement that is mounted to the barrel;
• diffusing the reference light to define a distributed reference light;
• filtering light via an image sensor arrangement that is mounted to a vehicle body portion of the armored vehicle to substantially block light that is at a different wavelength than the distributed reference light while allowing the distributed reference light passed through to an image sensor that is configured to detect light including positional information associated with the light;
• and
• detecting the distributed reference light via the image sensor for determining a barrel elevation angle.