Military knows UAV's can be deadly, wants new LASERS to shoot them down

[Bob]

Raytheon to develop UAV-killing laser weapon small enough to fit on Joint Light Tactical Vehicle


http://www.militaryaerospace.com/content/dam/mae/online-articles/2014/08/JLTV%2015%20Aug%202014.jpg

Officials of the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) in Arlington, Va., awarded an $11 million contract to the Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems segment in El Segundo, Calif., to develop a vehicle-based laser device capable of defeating low-flying threats such as enemy drones, Raytheon announced this week. (15 August 2014)

The U.S. Army, meanwhile, is investigating laser vehicles such as the Boeing truck-mounted High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator (HEL TD) to defend Army troops against UAVs, rockets, artillery shells, mortars, and similar threats.

It seems Industry's high energy Fibre Lasers are the weapons systems of choice.. Earlier a helicopter mounted Fibre Laser system was being solicited.

The big difference with the Raytheon G-BAD contract, however, is firing on the move.

The HEL TD, which has been demonstrated at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, is designed to move to deployed Army sites and engage targets from fixed sites.

The future Marine Corps G-BAD laser weapon is envisioned to fire laser weapons while maneuvering with moving Marine Corps air-ground task forces.

The contract awarded this week calls for Raytheon to conduct a field demonstration of a humvee-mounted short-range laser weapon system with a minimum power output of 25 kilowatts, Raytheon officials say.

Raytheon's planar waveguide (PWG) technology is the key to its G-BAD approach, company officials say. Using one PWG the size and shape of a 12 inch ruler Raytheon high energy lasers generate sufficient power to effectively engage small aircraft.

While the Army HEL-TD program seeks to mount a 10-kilowatt laser weapon on a 10-ton eight-wheel truck to engage targets from a distance, the G-BAD initiative seeks to mount a short-range air-defense laser at least as strong as 25 kilowatts on a four-wheel Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), which the Army, Marines, and Special Operations forces are developing to replace the Humvee.

(Source (http://www.militaryaerospace.com/articles/2014/08/raytheon-laser-jltv.html))

[Flash]

they build drones to kill now they have to build Tools to destroy the drones.

They could have put the money elsewhere by not building the drones to start with.

[Bob]

What caught my attention is the use of LASERS in small packages, to go after drones.

To use such on TROOPS or other ground based hardware then is what they have in mind as well.. Only a matter of time..

The whole laser device to do the deeds is supposed to be around 2500 pounds.. So it's not an infantry weapon yet, still vehicle mounted..

[Bob]

Other lasers appear to be gaining ground as a viable technology.

(Source (http://www.deps.org/DEPSpages/DEnews.html))

Lockheed Martin Wins Contract To Develop Weapons Grade Fiber Laser for U.S. Army Field Test

Raytheon got the Navy's attention, Lockheed got the Army's attention (http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/press-releases/2014/april/140424-mst-lm-wins-contract-to-develop-weapons-grade-fiber-laser.html).

Not to be outdone, Lockheed got a contract for a 60,000 watt Fibre Laser system.

"BOTHELL, Wash., April 24, 2014 – The U.S. Army has awarded Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] a $25 million contract to design, build and test a 60-kilowatt electric laser to be integrated and tested in a truck-mounted weapon system demonstrator. The laser weapon is designed to significantly improve the warfighters’ ability to counter rockets, artillery, mortars and unmanned aerial threats."

What a fibre system does is combine by LIGHT PIPES, the output of numerous DIODE LASERS linked together, into a MASSIVE collimated beam, and having passed through optics and a director system is able to precisely be used as an effective weapon.

Diode lasers have been used in commercial applications such as WELDING.

Diode lasers have been used in medical applications as well, for eye surgery, and tissue surgery where cauterizing is needed for the incision wounds.

What motivates Industry? Build a better mouse trap for the mouses, no.... billions of dollars in Defence Contracts is what does it.

Directed Energy Weapon Market Worth $18 Billion by 2020
Dallas. (posted: 27 March 2014)

The last few years witnessed a well-paced revolution in the directed energy weapon market, according to a recently released report by a market research firm. In the report, the market is projected to cross $18.42 Billion by 2020, growing from 2013 to year 2020.

This is what it looks like:

http://ej.iop.org/images/2040-8986/15/10/105501/Full/jopt475323f1_online.jpg

And a working model:

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/2014/07/100712-F-4280R-001.JPG

[Bob]

What is a Fibre Amplifier for LASERS ?

(Source (http://www.militaryaerospace.com/articles/2012/04/military-fiber-laser-specialist-nufern-wins-military-contracts-for-46-weapons-grade-fiber-laser-amplifiers.html))


http://www.militaryaerospace.com/content/dam/mae/online-articles/2012/04/how_laser_works.jpg

"To produce a weapons-grade system, laser output power must be increased without introducing additional optical phase noise and modal instability.

Tens of subapertures, each driven with a multi-kilowatt coherently combinable fiber laser amplifier, eventually could enable 100-kilowatt-class laser systems for precision strikes against ground and air targets".

Nufern (http://www.nufern.com/) of Connecticut, USA is a Fibre Amplifier Laser specialist group.

Theory is discussed in their Library Folder of Articles: http://www.nufern.com/library/

Also:

An optical amplifier is a device that amplifies an optical signal directly, without the need to first convert it to an electrical signal. An optical amplifier may be thought of as a laser without an optical cavity, or one in which feedback from the cavity is suppressed. Optical amplifiers are important in optical communication and laser physics.

There are several different physical mechanisms that can be used to amplify a light signal, which correspond to the major types of optical amplifiers. In doped fibre amplifiers and bulk lasers, stimulated emission in the amplifier's gain medium causes amplification of incoming light.

The signal to be amplified and a pump laser are multiplexed into the doped fibre, and the signal is amplified through interaction with the doping ions.

Types and Powers:


Thulium doped fibre amplifiers have been used in the S-band (1450–1490 nm) and Praseodymium doped amplifiers in the 1300 nm region.

However, those regions have not seen any significant commercial use so far and so those amplifiers have not been the subject of as much development as the EDFA. (Erbium-doped fibre amplifier)

However, Ytterbium doped fibre lasers and amplifiers, operating near 1 micrometre wavelength, have many applications in industrial processing of materials, as these devices can be made with extremely high output power (tens of kilowatts).

[Tesseract]

Bob, or anyone, do you know if these lasers would require several seconds of shining on the target to critically damage it (I did see 2 min run time specified in the link..), or could they just use a quick pulse? I seem to recall reading that star-wars or some other program aimed to shine the laser on the target for seconds (or maybe minutes) - wondering if things have progressed since then.. Long day at work - too tired to do my own research right now..

[Bob]

Bob, or anyone, do you know if these lasers would require several seconds of shining on the target to critically damage it (I did see 2 min run time specified in the link..), or could they just use a quick pulse? I seem to recall reading that star-wars or some other program aimed to shine the laser on the target for seconds (or maybe minutes) - wondering if things have progressed since then.. Long day at work - too tired to do my own research right now..

Lower power lasers, under 25 kilowatts require sustained time.. some of the 100 KW systems would be pretty instantaneous.. The function is based on power absorbed to affect a critical system on the drone.

If the target is a human though, 1 kilowatt systems would be effective, and power supplies for those exist in backpacks, and the Fibre lasers (the modules themselves) already are built over-the-counter for industrial uses.

The rule of thumb basically is this: joules are watts of energy expressed over a second of time. A laser maybe the equivalent of 10 watts for instance effective power (10 joule seconds). Looking at a 10 watt lighbulb is pretty easy.. But put 10 watts into a small concentrated beam spot, and 10 watts melts metal, cuts flesh within moments. Multiply that by 100 times for the lowest troop weapon and one has a formidable instantaneous weapon.. multiply that times 10,000 and one can affect many targets..

Plastic objects, antennas, optical systems, remote sensory systems are most subject to photonic energy weapons. Satellites could be blinded, props on planes melted, raydomes covering sensitive guidance systems melted, all effectively blinding or otherwise defeating those systems.

Metal skins though would require that to punch holes instantaneously that the beam be switched into PULSE MODE.. putting all that power now into not only a concentrated beam, but into a concentrated PACKET. That happening and massive destruction occurs, per pulse. Similar to machine gunning..