Research on damage characteristics of UAV flight control system irradiated by continuous laser

In order to improve the laser anti-UAV technology and UAV laser protection capabilities, research on continuous laser damage to UAV flight control system has been carried out. Combining waveform and function monitoring, the performance of the flight control system under laser irradiation is observed in real time, and the temperature and ablation process are recorded, which are used to analyze its damage characteristics and thresholds. Experimental results show that the flight control system has two damage modes: temporary failure and permanent damage. Temporary failure has a temperature threshold, which is about 177.7°C. All temporarily failed flight control system functions can be restored after cooling and manual restart, but permanent damaged flight control systems cannot be manually restarted. The experiment shows that, within 10 s, the power density required for temporary failure and permanent damage of the flight control system was 28.4 W/cm^2 and 42.6 W/cm^2 respectively. The power density required for permanent damage is 82.0 W/cm^2 within 16 s if the flight control system is encapsulated with aluminum alloy. Based on the circuit fault diagnosis of the flight control system samples that has been permanently damaged, the laser's thermal effects damaged the diodes and linear regulators, ultimately rendering the flight control system unable to be manually restarted.