Future Timeline

Lockheed Martin will scale its combat laser technology to a 500 kW-class laser. It will be the most powerful laser Lockheed Martin has produced, topping its 300 kW-class laser power level developed under a contract from the Department of Defense’s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering, OUSD (R&E). The 500 kW-class laser, developed under a new contract just awarded by OUSD (R&E), is the second phase of the High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI).

The U.S. Army is working through a variety of challenges with directed-energy weapons for air defense, including how to affordably manufacture the high-tech capability and sustain it on the battlefield.

United Kingdom armed forces will receive its first 15 KW laser weapon in October 2023. A subsidiary of RTX’s Raytheon UK, the high-energy laser weapon system will be integrated into the UK’s Wolfhound armored vehicle. The UK Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) Land Demonstrator Program has developed a 15-kilowatt laser to prevent aerial threats from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Laser weapons have begun to spread throughout NATO, as the German Navy has completed a year-long trial under realistic sea conditions of a 20-kW MBDA Deutschland/Rheinmetall Laser Weapon Demonstrator. It was installed aboard the 5,800-tonne (6,393-ton) frigate Sachsen.

Organized by the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support (BAAINBw), the trials were carried out by the High-Energy Laser Naval Demonstrator Working Group (ARGE) consisting of MBDA Deutschland and Rheinmetall.

In June 2022, a modular laser weapon system was installed on the deck of the Sachsen and integrated into the warship's command and control system. The weapon is made up of 12 2-kW laser modules based on coiled bundles of solid-state doped fiber, which generate high-quality laser beams. These go through a beam combiner that uses spectral coupling technology to form a single, much more powerful beam that can be scaled up to 100 kW.

Lockheed Martin has a US Army contract to develop and deliver up to four 300 kW-class laser weapon systems to the Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL) prototype program. The IFPC-HEL system complements other layered defense components to protect soldiers from stressing threats, unmanned aerial systems, rocket, artillery and mortars, along with rotary and fixed-wing aircraft.

Lockheed Martin will deliver two 300 kW-class IFPC-HEL prototypes with an option for two additional 300 kW-class units.

weatheriscool wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2023 9:13 pm
Lockheed Will Make Two to Four 300 Kilowatt Class Lasers for the US Army
October 14, 2023 by Brian Wang

Lockheed Martin has a US Army contract to develop and deliver up to four 300 kW-class laser weapon systems to the Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL) prototype program. The IFPC-HEL system complements other layered defense components to protect soldiers from stressing threats, unmanned aerial systems, rocket, artillery and mortars, along with rotary and fixed-wing aircraft.

Lockheed Martin will deliver two 300 kW-class IFPC-HEL prototypes with an option for two additional 300 kW-class units.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/10/l ... -army.html

https://newatlas.com/military/raytheon- ... orce-navy/
The US Navy and US Air Force have tapped Raytheon to design, build and test two high-power microwave antenna systems. These will be used in field-grade directed energy weapons to counter aerial drones and similar threats.

Recent conflicts have dramatically shown the increasing role that drones play in modern warfare. Even a small quadcopter of the sort you can buy in a hobby shop can be easily repurposed as a reconnaissance platform for artillery, or even as a way of delivering hand grenades with deadly precision. Add to this the specially made military drones of various sizes and levels of sophistication, and you end up with a formidable force that can be deployed in shocking numbers.

To counter this threat, scientists and engineers have come up with a number of approaches. One of the most promising is the use of directed energy weapons that use lasers and microwaves to disrupt or destroy hostile drones. The beauty of such systems is that, if they work, they can operate with unlimited ammunition that costs a dollar a shot and travel at the speed of light. The weapons can also be programmed to cover large areas of the sky while sparing friendly aircraft.

Under a three-year US$31.3 million contract from the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, Raytheon is tasked with developing prototype antenna systems by 2026 as part of the Directed Energy Front-line Electromagnetic Neutralization and Defeat (DEFEND) program.

Britain this week showed off a new laser weapon that its military says could deliver lethal missile or aircraft defense at around $13 a shot, potentially saving tens of millions of dollars over the cost of missile interceptors that do the job now.

Newly released video of a test of what the United Kingdom’s Defense Ministry calls the DragonFire, a laser directed energy weapon (LDEW) system, captured what the ministry says was the successful use of the laser against an aerial target during a January demonstration in Scotland.

“It’s a potential game changer for air defense,” the video says as a bright laser beam pierces the night sky over a firing range in the remote Hebrides archipelago, creating a ball of light as it hits its target.

A new directed energy weapon is being rolled out to bolster British defense capabilities. And, at 13 cents a shot, it's just as effective, but a lot cheaper than the multi-million dollar missiles it's designed to replace.

The Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapon (RFDEW) is part of the British government's policy to respond to a changing geopolitical situation, placing the country's defense on more of a war footing as it increases spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030. This policy change also includes fast-tracking the rollout of lasers and other directed energy weapons.

The latter is extremely important, because, well, knocking out a drone that costs a few grand with a missile costing millions of dollars per round is bad economics – see, for example, the US$1.3-2.5 million Sea Viper missile used to take out a US$20,000 drone, as reported by Navy Lookout. Also, missile stockpiles tend to be pretty small, and swarms of cheap drones could easily exhaust them.

In another step toward practical battlefield energy weapons, the UK has for the first time tested a laser weapon mounted on a British Army Wolfhound armored vehicle as part of the Land Laser Directed Energy Weapon (LDEW) Demonstrator program.

Ever since they were invented in the 1960s, lasers have been seen as a potentially game-changing weapon. At first, it makes perfect sense. Lasers can cut through steel. They move at the speed of light. They can engage multiple targets instantly. The rounds are potentially infinite and cost surprisingly little.

The problem has been figuring out how to move lasers off the workbench and onto the battlefield. A practical laser weapon has to be powerful enough to significantly damage a target. It needs to be able to lock onto targets long enough to complete the job. The system needs to be able to adjust the beam so it remains focused and can compensate for atmospheric distortion, fog, dust, and other factors. It also needs to be portable, robust, and compact.

The US Navy released a new photo of USS Preble (DDG-88) firing her HELIOS laser weapon.



The USS Preble is the first U.S. Navy vessel equipped with HELIOS, a 60-kilowatt-class directed energy laser weapon developed by Lockheed Martin. It is also the first laser weapon integrated with the Aegis combat system, a key feature that enhances the ship’s ability to track, engage, and neutralize threats.

It provides a cost-effective countermeasure against drones, small boats, and other asymmetric threats. The U.S. Navy has been expanding its directed energy arsenal.

https://newatlas.com/military/british-a ... nes-swarm/
The British Army has successfully tested a Radiofrequency Directed Energy Weapon (RF DEW) that took out multiple swarms of drones simultaneously and near instantaneously using high-frequency radio waves at a cost of 10p (US$0.13) per shot.
Drones are becoming a major factor in modern warfare as well as a growing potential hazard to civilian air traffic. In 2024 alone, Russia launched 18,000 drone attacks against Ukraine and the Bard College's Center for the Study of the Drone claims that there were 241 near collisions between drones and civilian aircraft last year in the US alone.

The problem with drones is that many variants are very small and cheap and can be launched in swarms that could potentially overwhelm or evade conventional air defense systems. One approach to countering these swarms is to use directed energy weapons to attack all the intruders at once instead of one at a time.

Looking like something out of Minecraft, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force has released a new image of its latest electromagnetic railgun being developed by the Acquisition, Technology, & Logistics Agency (ATLA) to counter hypersonic missiles.

First developed in the 1920s, railguns are simple to understand, have a remarkable potential, and sound seriously sci-fi. The principle behind them is fairly simple. In fact, any first-year engineering student could build a decent one without much effort.

Essentially, it's the equivalent of taking an electric motor and flattening it out so that instead of making the armature spin around, the magnets shoot it across the room, which can be a bit aggravating. It's the principle behind maglev trains and the fighter plane launchers on the latest US aircraft carriers. For the railgun, it's used to propel projectiles at tremendous speeds without the need for cordite or other explosives.

The United States, India, China, France, and Germany have all looked at developing a practical railgun for warships and land artillery, but Japan has shown the keenest interest since 2016, pouring in 46.3 billion yen (US$300 million) in the past three years.

We're now living in times when a YouTuber is able to build what is apparently the world's strongest handheld laser. The device is powerful enough to melt titanium, fracture diamond, weld razor blades, and even make synthetic rubies.

Drake Anthony – better known to his 3 million YouTube followers as styropyro – is a chemist and YouTuber with a fondness for building huge lasers and playing with electricity and chemicals. His latest project was a build "so far off the laser-danger chart the eye-hazard is
incomprehensible."