AOI 27-A001 Resilient Airborne Free-Space Optical Communications Turret

The advent of high-threat Electronic Warfare (EW) and Global Positioning System (GPS) or Radio Frequency (RF)-denied operational domains poses an immediate risk to Department of Navy (DoN), Marine Corps, and joint aerial and maritime fleet operations. Modern tactical concepts�such as Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO) and Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2)�demand ultra-high-bandwidth communications and high-precision timing synchronization across dynamic, multi-domain nodes without reliance on vulnerable RF spectra or satellite navigation. Precision optical clock synchronization and free-space optical communications (FSOC) offer timing holdover improvements and superior timing synchronization in GPS-denied environments, and high-speed low-probability-of-intercept/lowprobability-of-detection communication links. However, transitioning optical time transfer and FSOC from benign ground laboratories to highdynamic flight environments presents severe aero-optical and mechanical barriers. Dynamic aircraft boundary layers, trans-sonic shock structures, aero-optical phase aberrations, basemotion jitter, and stringent airframe size, weight, power (SWaP), and aerodynamic drag constraints disrupt beam coherence and line-of-sight tracking. Furthermore, existing commercial optical gimbals lack the structural airworthiness certifications, thermal/pressure shock resilience, fine pointing, acquisition, and tracking/PAT (PAT) closed-loop rejection required for host aircraft integration. NIWC Atlantic seeks to prototype and demonstrate a flight-certified, aero-optically resilient dual-turret optical communications and optical time-transfer system operable across ground, littoral, and multi-altitude airborne regimes.