France is overhauling the way its SCORPION armored vehicles detect laser threats. The French Army’s Technical Section, STAT, is developing the ULYSSE project, which replaces a conventional network of expensive electronic detectors with a distributed array of simpler fiber-optic receivers.

Modern French armored vehicles are currently equipped with Thales ANTARES electro-optical systems. Full-scale laser warning detectors, however, are too costly to install in sufficient numbers to cover an entire vehicle.

A panoramic sensor is normally mounted on the roof, but parts of the vehicle itself can block its field of view. Weapons, hatches and masts create physical obstacles, leaving blind spots around the hull.

ULYSSE takes a different approach. Instead of placing multiple sophisticated electronic sensors across the turret and body, the system uses numerous compact and less expensive fiber-optic receiver heads distributed around the vehicle.

These components do not process the incoming signal themselves. Their role is to detect laser radiation striking the vehicle and immediately transmit the raw light through optical fiber to a protected internal control unit. Photodiodes and the computing hardware are concentrated inside that central module, according to Voennoye Obozrenie.

By spreading a large number of receivers across the hull and turret, the architecture is designed to provide full 360-degree coverage and eliminate areas that a single panoramic detector cannot monitor.

Once a laser beam is detected, the central unit determines the direction of the threat. Countermeasure systems can then automatically turn toward the source of the laser.

The French Defense Ministry says ULYSSE has already undergone testing against real laser rangefinders, with the first trials completed successfully. Further tests are planned for the coming months.

STAT then intends to select an industrial partner and sign a contract paving the way for serial integration of the fiber-optic architecture into SCORPION armored vehicles.