The Kinetic Kill Vehicle Hardware-in-the-Loop Vacuum Cold Chamber (KVACC) has been a work in progress since its initial delivery in 1995. Originally delivered as a basic cryogenic test chamber with little real world capability, it has evolved over the years to a valuable test asset incorporating many leading edge test technologies. KVACC is now the centerpiece for the cryogenic complex scene test capability within the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The purpose of this paper is to describe the capabilities of KVACC as they have evolved since its initial delivery.
The KHILS Vacuum Cold Chamber (KVACC) has formed the basis for a comprehensive test capability for newly developed dual-band infrared sensors. Since initial delivery in 1995, the KVACC chamber and its support systems have undergone a number of upgrades, maturing into a valuable test asset and technology demonstrator for missile defense systems. Many leading edge test technologies have been consolidated during the past several years, demonstrating the level of fidelity achievable in tomorrow's missile test facilities. These technologies include resistive array scene projectors, sub-pixel non-linear spatial calibration and coupled two-dimensional radiometric calibration techniques, re-configurable FPGA based calibration electronics, dual-band beam-combination and collimation optics, a closed-cycle multi-chamber cryo-vacuum environment, personal computer (PC) based scene generation systems and a surrounding class-1000 clean room environment. The purpose of this paper is to describe this unique combination of technologies and the capability it represents to the hardware-in-the-loop community.
The MSSP program is a tri-service development of a capability for test and evaluation of multi-spectral seeker systems. At the conclusion of the project, each service will be equipped with an MSSP system specifically tailored to meet its specific test and facility requirements.
The KHILS Vacuum Cold Chamber (KVACC) was developed to provide the capability of performing hardware-in-the-loop testing of infrared seekers requiring scenes involving cold backgrounds. Being able to project cold backgrounds enables the projector to simulate high-altitude exoatmospheric engagements. Previous tests with the KVACC projection system have used only one resistive-array projection device. In order to realistically stimulate a 2-color seeker, it is necessary to project in two, independently controlled IR bands. Missile interceptors commonly use two or more colors; thus, a 2-color projection capability has been developed for the KVACC system. The 2- color projection capability is being accomplished by optically combining two Phase 3 WISP arrays with a dichroic beam combiner. Both WISP arrays are cooled to user-selected temperatures ranging from ambient temperature to below 150 K. In order to test the projection system, a special-purpose camera has also been developed. The camera is designed to operate inside the vacuum chamber. It has a cooled, all- reflective broadband optical system to enable the measurement of low radiance levels in the 3 - 12 micrometer spectrum. Camera upgrades later this year will allow measurements in two independent wavebands. Both the camera and the projector will be described in this paper.
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