Patent ID: 7175130

Claim:
A guidance system for a vehicle comprising a laser source located at a distance from the vehicle, the source having means to generate at least one laser beam that is directed towards the vehicle with said at least one laser beam being modulated by a beam encoder, the vehicle having a plurality of backward-looking sensors mounted on its main body to detect radiation scattered from said at least one laser beam by particles in the atmosphere and a plurality of forward-looking sensors located on the vehicle's main body to detect radiation scattered from that laser beam, the backward-looking sensors and forward-looking sensors having a first field-of-view (FOV) in the direction they are directed along the missile's longitudinal axis and a second, wider FOV in a direction perpendicular to the first FOV to provide detection coverage in a pyramid shaped FOV with edges surrounding the vehicle which contains processing electronics to which signals from the sensors are applied, the processing electronics having means to determine a phase difference between the forward-looking and backward-looking sensors and means to determine a distance between the sensors and that laser beam from said phase difference.