US Laser and Rail Gun Development News
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
Yes...but this thread is specifically about US Laser and Rail Gun development.
My Bad. I didn't notice the restriction on US only.
Finally, Lockheed's Athena laser vs a truck at 1 mile range.
The Athena is relatively low power at 30KW (JHPSSL and HELLADS are both > 100KW). The beam itself is much smaller than the hole in the hood. The heat from the engine melting caused the hood to peel its' paint and the hole to burn bigger.
The Athena is relatively low power at 30KW (JHPSSL and HELLADS are both > 100KW). The beam itself is much smaller than the hole in the hood. The heat from the engine melting caused the hood to peel its' paint and the hole to burn bigger.
One more. A CGI portent of the future. What is interesting here is that the company making both the UAV (Avenger) and laser (HELLADS) produced this video. It indicates the size/power requirements for a weapons grade laser will be dramatically reduced when this becomes available. No picture of HELLADS has been released as far as I can tell. However, it has passed subscale tests and the full size 150KW laser is in development. I think it is slated for tests at White Sands within a couple of years. In the meantime, JHPSSL has been integrated into the old MTHEL beam director. I keep waiting for them to release a video. JHPSSL has a 105KW rating.
First public display of what HELLADS looks like. This thing can put out 150KW average power and it is small enough to carry on a fighter sized aircraft. There has been talk of using an F35B with the lift fan removed and replaced with an electrical generator to power the laser.
More info on HELLADS from General Atomics. The technical descriptions on size/weight/power are hard to believe. If true, HEL self defense for combat aircraft is now feasible. This would be a DIRCM using total body kill as opposed to simple blinding and would work on RF guided missiles or even hostile fighters.
Gen 3 High Energy Laser Completes Beam Quality Evaluation
HEL System Designed for Land, Sea, and Airborne Platforms
SAN DIEGO – 8 April 2015 – General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA ASI), a leading manufacturer of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) systems, radars, and electro-optic and related mission systems solutions, today announced that an independent measurement team contracted by the U.S. Government has completed beam quality and power measurements of GA-ASI’s Gen 3 High Energy Laser System (HEL) using the Joint Technology Office (JTO) Government Diagnostic System (GDS).
“These measurements confirm the exceptional beam quality of the Gen 3 HEL, the next-generation leader in electrically-pumped lasers,” said Claudio Pereida, executive vice president, Mission Systems, GA-ASI.
The new laser represents the third generation of technology originally developed under the High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS, Gen 1) program. The Gen 3 Laser employs a number of upgrades resulting in improved beam quality, increased electrical to optical efficiency, and reduced size and weight. The recently certified Gen 3 laser assembly is very compact at only 1.3 x 0.4 x 0.5 meters. The system is powered by a compact Lithium-ion battery supply designed to demonstrate a deployable architecture for tactical platforms.
The Gen 3 HEL tested is a unit cell for the Tactical Laser Weapon Module (TLWM) currently under development. Featuring a flexible, deployable architecture, the TLWM is designed for use on land, sea, and airborne platforms and will be available in four versions at the 50, 75, 150, and 300 kilowatt laser output levels.
The GDS was employed by an independent measurement team to evaluate the beam quality of the Gen 3 system over a range of operating power and run time. According to JTO’s Jack Slater, “The system produced the best beam quality from a high energy laser that we have yet measured with the GDS. We were impressed to see that the beam quality remained constant with increasing output power and run-time.”
With run time limited only by the magazine depth of the battery system, beam quality was constant throughout the entire run at greater than 30 seconds. These measurements confirm that the exceptional beam quality of this new generation of electrically-pumped lasers is maintained above the 50 kilowatt level.
Following this evaluation, the independent team will use the GDS again to conduct beam quality measurements of the GA-ASI HELLADS Demonstrator Laser Weapon System (DLWS). The HELLADS DLWS includes a 150 kilowatt class laser with integrated power and thermal management.
Gen 3 High Energy Laser Completes Beam Quality Evaluation
HEL System Designed for Land, Sea, and Airborne Platforms
SAN DIEGO – 8 April 2015 – General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA ASI), a leading manufacturer of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) systems, radars, and electro-optic and related mission systems solutions, today announced that an independent measurement team contracted by the U.S. Government has completed beam quality and power measurements of GA-ASI’s Gen 3 High Energy Laser System (HEL) using the Joint Technology Office (JTO) Government Diagnostic System (GDS).
“These measurements confirm the exceptional beam quality of the Gen 3 HEL, the next-generation leader in electrically-pumped lasers,” said Claudio Pereida, executive vice president, Mission Systems, GA-ASI.
The new laser represents the third generation of technology originally developed under the High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS, Gen 1) program. The Gen 3 Laser employs a number of upgrades resulting in improved beam quality, increased electrical to optical efficiency, and reduced size and weight. The recently certified Gen 3 laser assembly is very compact at only 1.3 x 0.4 x 0.5 meters. The system is powered by a compact Lithium-ion battery supply designed to demonstrate a deployable architecture for tactical platforms.
The Gen 3 HEL tested is a unit cell for the Tactical Laser Weapon Module (TLWM) currently under development. Featuring a flexible, deployable architecture, the TLWM is designed for use on land, sea, and airborne platforms and will be available in four versions at the 50, 75, 150, and 300 kilowatt laser output levels.
The GDS was employed by an independent measurement team to evaluate the beam quality of the Gen 3 system over a range of operating power and run time. According to JTO’s Jack Slater, “The system produced the best beam quality from a high energy laser that we have yet measured with the GDS. We were impressed to see that the beam quality remained constant with increasing output power and run-time.”
With run time limited only by the magazine depth of the battery system, beam quality was constant throughout the entire run at greater than 30 seconds. These measurements confirm that the exceptional beam quality of this new generation of electrically-pumped lasers is maintained above the 50 kilowatt level.
Following this evaluation, the independent team will use the GDS again to conduct beam quality measurements of the GA-ASI HELLADS Demonstrator Laser Weapon System (DLWS). The HELLADS DLWS includes a 150 kilowatt class laser with integrated power and thermal management.
WOW! They are moving along faster with this than I thought.
This will be good news...and not just for aircraft.
Getting down to a package of this size opens up all sorts of airborne, land based, and at sea applications.