Kratos Wins $1M Navy Contract for Optical Mirrors

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. announced Monday that the Sensors & Space Systems group of its Weapons Systems Solutions (WSS) division has received a new contract award in excess of $1 million for research and development related to flexible membrane optical mirrors from the Office of Naval Research.

The national security solutions provider focuses on transitioning emerging technologies to meet war fighter requirements in the imaging and spectroscopic sensor fields. It has many ongoing efforts; most notably conducting R&D ventures to advance the capabilities of ground and airborne sensors.

The program’s goal is to use electrical signals to adjust the shape of large optical mirrors. The approach is anticipated to allow optical designers the freedom to adjust focus and zoom levels of an optical system without moving mechanisms.

Currently, the designers use a combination of moving mirrors and lenses to make the sensor adjustments, resulting in a heavy, bulky mechanism that requires significant amounts of time to make adjustments.

The Sensors & Space Systems group will conduct its research in collaboration with Advanced Optical Systems and NeXolve Corp., its partners.

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