Air-to-ground lasercom system demonstration

This article presents an overview of the air to ground lasercom demonstration performed under the Free-Space Optical Communications Airborne Link (FOCAL) program. Techniques used to mitigate fading, demonstrated in 2008 and reported earlier, are reviewed as are the basic equipment approach, also reported earlier. We overview the new results for tracking, fiber coupling, channel measurements and communications performance for the air-to-ground link. This work was sponsored by the Department of Defense, RRCO DDR&E, under Air Force Contract FA8721-05-C-0002. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions and recommendations are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the United States Government.