THE TRUTH IS ALWAYS ON THE OTHER SIDE

Lahaina/Maui

https://www.airforcetimes.com/air/2017/11/07/coming-in-2021-a-laser-weapon-for-fighter-jets/

WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin will create a high-powered laser for the U.S. Air Force that will be demonstrated on a fighter jet in 2021.

The company was recently awarded a $26.3 million contract to design and build a fiber laser as part of an Air Force Research Laboratory program called Self-protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator, or SHiELD. That laser will be integrated with two other main subsystems: a pod that will power and cool the laser and a beam-control system, which will direct the laser onto the target.

If successful, the technology could be a game-changer. The Air Force has long desired an airborne laser so that it can take out surface-to-air and air-to-air missile threats more cheaply than current intercept methods.

Industry has struggled for about a decade to make a laser small enough to be installed on a vehicle or aircraft that was also powerful enough to be relevant on a battlefield, Rob Afzal, Lockheed’s senior fellow of laser weapon systems, said during a Tuesday phone call with reporters. However, improvements in fiber laser technology are enabling the company to miniaturize more powerful systems.

“We’re able now to put a scalable system together that’s very efficient at converting electric power into a high-power laser beam while maintaining the beam quality. And by maintaining that beam quality, that means you get the most effectiveness from your system,” he said.

“Because the system is efficient, it demands fewer resources from the platform. It demands the lowest amount of electric power and generates the lowest amount of waste heat.”

[The Air Force of the Future: Lasers on Fighter Jets, Planes That Think]

So how powerful will Lockheed’s laser be? Afzal wouldn’t say, except that it would be in the “tens of kilowatts.” He also shied away from questions about which fighter jet will carry the laser, the range of the weapon and how the Air Force will test SHiELD during the demonstration, directing those queries to the service.

After Lockheed finishes developing and testing its laser in a series of ground tests, it will deliver it to the Air Force lab, where it will be integrated with the other SHiELD subsystems before another round of testing and integration aboard an unspecified jet, Afzal said.

Northrop Grumman is manufacturing the beam-control system, which goes by the acronym STRAFE, which stands for SHiELD Turret Research in Aero Effects. Boeing is responsible for integrating the SHiELD systems into a single pod, called Laser Pod Research and Development.

Afzal declined to comment on when Lockheed will deliver the laser or when its preliminary design review would be complete.

[US Army gets world record-setting 60-kW laser]

Lockheed has experience developing high-powered tactical lasers. Earlier this year, the company delivered a 60-kilowatt laser to the U.S. Army to be integrated on the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck, the service’s largest ground vehicle. It has also built a 30-kilowatt laser system that has been in the field for four years, Afzal said.

About Valerie Insinna

Valerie Insinna is Defense News' air warfare reporter. She previously worked the Navy/congressional beats for Defense Daily, which followed almost three years as a staff writer for National Defense Magazine. Prior to that, she worked as an editorial assistant for the Tokyo Shimbun’s Washington bureau.

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OFFICE OF NAVAL RESEARCH

DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPONS: COUNTER DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPONS AND HIGH ENERGY LASERS

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Everyone wonders what happened on Lahaina/Maui, but no one thinks logically and does a little research...

https://rumble.com/v379zmd-the-curious-case-of-the-lahaina-wildfire-houses-and-boats-burned-why-not-th.html

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https://web.archive.org/web/20221003192500/https://www.nre.navy.mil/organization/departments/aviation-force-projection-and-integrated-defense/aerospace-science-research-351/directed-energy-weapons-uspl-and-atmospheric-characterization

Directed energy weapons (DEWs) are defined as electromagnetic systems capable of converting chemical or electrical energy to radiated energy and focusing it on a target, resulting in physical damage that degrades, neutralizes, defeats, or destroys an adversarial capability. Navy DEWs include systems that use High Energy Lasers (HEL) that emit photons, and High Power Microwaves (HPM) that release radiofrequency waves. The U.S. Navy uses DEWs for power projection and integrated defense missions. The ability to focus the radiated energy reliably and repeatedly at range, with precision and controllable effects, while producing measured physical damage, is the measure of DEW system effectiveness. Conversely, capabilities to increase the resilience or survivability of platforms or Sailors from DEW threats are part of the Counter Directed Energy Weapons (CDEW) program.

The Office of Naval Research has three weapons-oriented research concentration areas: High Power Microwaves (HPM); Ultra-Short Pulse Laser (USPL) and Atmospheric Characterization; and Counter-Directed Energy Weapons and High Energy Lasers (CDEW & HEL).

Research Concentration Area: Ultra-Short Pulse Laser (USPL) and Atmospheric Characterization

Ultra-Short Pulse Laser (USPL) and Atmospheric Characterization initiatives explore the scientific limitations of DEW. Of particular research interest are efforts that offer breakthroughs in precision dynamic engagements against multiple maneuvering targets with selectable effects (hard kill, sensing, non-lethal), and those offering deep magazines, low cost per shot and “lowest” to zero collateral damage. This challenge includes research into fundamental understanding of laser sources, adaptive optics compensation techniques, long range atmospheric propagation physics, and the characterization of laser-matter interactions. This program will develop scientific understanding, components and subsystems to enable a USPL-based DEW best suited for naval applications.

Research Challenges and Opportunities

• Atmospheric & Adaptive Optics: Controlling atmospheric interactions (like filamentation) while maximizing intensities requires the characterization and control to minimize the losses of laser intensity at distance. Accomplishing this will require adaptive optics with advanced control systems capable of handling non-linear laser propagation against fast moving targets in a maritime, littoral or high turbulence environment. Also of interest are systems capable of compensation through the high turbulence conditions of low maritime altitudes. Interest also includes beacon vs non-beacon solutions for near real-time adjustment of adaptive optics in real-time atmospheric conditions, and the break-up of laser beams due to atmospheric lensing. This includes high repetition rate of high power USPLs against their propagation effects in the atmosphere in order to validate propagation models with controlled experiments at over one kilometer (>1 km).

• Materials Interaction & Response: Understand the theory of laser pulse material interaction and the effects due to concentrated strong electric fields through experimentation and observations to understand, validate and document USPL physics. Examine whether or not greater pulse energy at longer duration causes more effect than less pulse energy at shorter pulse duration, including femtosecond pulses.

• Laser Source Development: Research laser sources with high repetition rates to address weapon capabilities and capacity within platform size, weight, energy and power constraints. Additional interest includes USPL ruggedization, reductions in size, weight and power or cooling (SWAP-C), USPL pulse compression and expansion, and novel compact long wavelength infrared (LWIR) USPL sources.

US Army developing world’s most powerful laser weapon for a ‘future battlefield’

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/06/us-army-developing-worlds-most-powerful-laser-weapon-for-a-future-battlefield/

Concept image for a laser weapons system. (US Army/Released)

June 10, 2021 Elizabeth Lawrence

The U.S. Army is building the world’s most powerful laser weapon, capable of vaporizing targets and interrupting adversaries’ technology signals. The weapon is over one million times more powerful than any other laser developed before, NewScientist reported.

According to the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) website, the laser system, known as the Tactical Ultrashort Pulsed Laser (USPL) for Army Platforms, will stand apart from current lasers by emitting short pulses that rely on low energy, unlike current lasers which typically produce continuous waves.

“The Army is preparing the warfighter for a future battlefield with rapidly modernizing militaries while new threats and gaps are emerging,” the SBIR website stated in a brief explaining the future laser system.

According to the report, the system being developed will reach a terawatt for 200 femtoseconds, or one quadrillionth of a second. The split-second laser would be capable of incinerating a drone. The laser is also being designed to interrupt electronic signals by emitting an electromagnetic pulse.

NewScientist reported that the United States hopes to have a prototype in trials by 2022.

The laser weapons would change how the military combats fast-moving, small drones and missiles, as well as human enemies, with human reactions ranging from skin irritation to blindness.

“These kilowatt-class CW laser systems predominantly engage targets via absorption of light; either causing the target to burn and melt or overwhelming optical sensors with high intensities,” the brief stated.

“This call aims to develop an USPL that is ruggedized enough to begin testing in relevant Army environments,” it continued.

The Army also began testing a prototype laser weapon for close-range air defense in May, the Defense Post reported. The high-energy laser will be able to locate, lock on, track and destroy aerial threats in just seconds.

“Twenty-three months ago, this was just an idea,” Army Vice Chief of Staff, Gen. Joseph Martin, told Stars and Stripes. “It’s very promising. It’s very powerful. There are many things we’ve got to do in terms of testing, and it’s about to go through a shootout to see how it does.”

The laser can detect and destroy enemy drones within five miles, the report stated.  

“We’ve got a target acquisition system that can sense and lock-on and then strike a moving mortar round, a moving cruise missile, an unmanned aerial system, and other aircraft… It will penetrate and disrupt that particular munition or platform’s ability to accomplish its mission,” Martin said. “That’s an incredible power to have. That is the kind of capability we have to have, and it demonstrates our ability to respond to the world around us with technology.”

https://rumble.com/v37osq0-the-curious-case-of-the-lahaini-wildfire-even-jack-posobiec-noticed-the-mic.html

And in this context, let's remember 5 G once again - with 6 G also already in the conversation

5G MILLIMETER WAVE ENERGY MAY PENETRATE DEEPER THAN PREDICTED 

May 18, 2020 

5G Millimeter Waves May Penetrate Deeper Than Predicted 

According to Belyaev 2019, “the health effects of chronic MMW exposures may be more significant than for any other frequency range.” Belyaev contends that “While MMW are almost completely absorbed within 1-2 mm in biologically equivalent tissues, it may penetrate much deeper in live human body.” “When a very fast pulse of radiation enters the human body, it generates a burst of energy that can travel much deeper than predicted by conventional models (Oughstun 2017). This induced radiation pulse is known as a Brillouin precursor. Brillouin precursors can be formed by ultrawideband radiation and by high-speed data signals as used in 5G.”

https://ehtrust.org/5g-millimeter-wave-energy-may-penetrate-deeper-than-predicted/

And we know... 6 G, 7 G are also already under discussion....

Warmest greetings to all of you!!