Boeing’s portable High Energy Laser systems can be integrated on land, air, and sea platforms and can incorporate fiber lasers of varying wattage with scalable effects. Boeing redesigned the CLWS and shed 40 percent of the beam director’s weight, making it quicker to set up and allowing for more mounting and integration options.
Smaller, more powerful lasers
Dr. Michael Perry, vice president for laser and electro-optical systems for General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), said naval ships have the size and power-generation capabilities to make the Navy well positioned to be a lead adopter in getting lasers up and running at sea.
New technology is making lasers practical for naval applications. One is the emergence of high brightness and efficient laser diodes with the ability to remove the heat that’s generated inside the laser at the same rate that it’s generated.
“The Navy is the logical first place to do this,” he said, “but they need to get the power up for the maritime environment.”
“The Ponce is a good initial concept demo,” said Perry. “It’s needs to go far beyond that to become a truly effective weapon.”
As seen in this still image taken from video, the Laser Weapon System (LaWS), temporarily installed aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105) in 2012, is a technology demonstrator built by the Naval Sea Systems Command from commercial fiber solid state lasers, utilizing combination methods developed at the Naval Research Laboratory. LaWS can be directed onto targets from the radar track obtained from a MK 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapon system or other targeting source. The Office of Naval Research’s Solid State Laser (SSL) portfolio includes LaWS development and upgrades providing a quick reaction capability for the fleet with an affordable SSL weapon prototype. U.S. Navy photo
New technology is making lasers practical for naval applications. One is the emergence of high brightness and efficient laser diodes with the ability to remove the heat that’s generated inside the laser at the same rate that it’s generated.
GA-ASI is testing a 150-kilowatt class system at the White Sands test range in New Mexico, and has a smaller and more compact, more efficient 150-kilowatt system being built now. “Basically, we’re operating that system with one head in the 75-kilowatt class, and by combining two different heads inside the same resonator means is you get a single, coherent output in the 150-kilowatt class. We’re looking at how to string those together for even higher powers,” said Perry.
Perry said General Atomics, a company known for its unmanned aircraft, has a loftier goal. “Our focus right now is trying to get the 150-kilowatt class system on a UAV. That’s much, much more challenging than putting it on a ship.”
Even the Navy admits lasers are a weapon of the future. But the future may be here sooner than you think.
Courtesy of Surface SITREP. Republished with the permission of the Surface Navy Association (www.navysna.org).