Active cooperative tuned identification friend or foe (ACTIFF)

A responder optical head to be mounted on vehicles for an identification friend-or-foe system, the responder optical head comprising a number of small panels arranged in an array with surfaces of adjacent panels being at an angle to each other, outer surface of the panels being coated with laser paint designed to emit radiation at one or more selective wavelengths when subjected to a suitable interrogation pump beam of a different wavelength, the selective wavelengths forming an identification code for a vehicle on which the optical head is mounted.

An optical identification friend-or-foe system for vehicles, the system comprising a narrow beam interrogation means and a narrow field-of-view detection unit directed in the same direction as said narrow beam located on an interrogation vehicle and a responder optical head mounted on a target vehicle, the interrogation vehicle having means to direct the narrow beam toward a target vehicle with the detection unit having means to detect one or more selective wavelength emissions from the responder optical head on a target vehicle, which emissions form an identification code for the target vehicle;

• the optical head comprising a number of flat surfaces coated with laser paint wherein the flat surfaces are arranged at an angle to each other with their coated surfaces facing outward, the laser paint being designed to emit radiation at said one or more selective wavelengths when subjected to a suitable infrared (IR) pump beam, the narrow beam from the interrogation means forming said pump beam causing the optical head to emit said one or more selective wavelength emissions when irradiated with said narrow beam.