Multifunction Electro-Optics for Defense of US Aircraft (MEDUSA)

Program Manager: Dr. Monte Turner

The Multifunction Electro-Optics for Defense of U.S. Aircraft (MEDUSA) program addresses the emerging threat of non-RF enemy air defenses.

The goal of the program: to take out any enemy electro-optic and infrared air defense systems that track and attack our aircraft. The program takes the paradigm we use to protect our aircraft from radar-guided surface-to-air missiles and applies it to protection against optical and infrared guided missiles. The MEDUSA approach is much more active, searching for and detecting these types of threats and dealing with them before they launch or immediately after launch. MEDUSA combines both active and passive optical systems and includes multiple modes of operation: search, track, classify and optical defeat. The objective is to break the enemy air defense kill chain at multiple points, not just at the endgame.