US Patent 7236299 Compact periscopic beam director

A periscopic beam director is disclosed. The periscopic beam director can be configured with a hemispheric field of regard, in a volume that minimizes external structure or dome size when mounted on a host vehicle (e.g., airplane or UAV). One embodiment combines a Risley Prism refractive beam steering arrangement with an angled azimuthal mount. By using refraction in combination with reflection for changing the beam direction within an optical unit, a substantially more compact periscopic beam director can be realized.