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Lasers, Microwaves, Hypersonics & More: Army RCCTO
(posted: 7 August 2019)
The Army's three-star rapid capabilities chief is rushing to sign a contract on hypersonic missiles in three weeks, announced a new high-energy laser last week and just revealed a plan to build drone-killing microwave weapons - and he's about to host an industry day asking innovators for even more ideas.
More information.
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Lasers, Microwaves, Hypersonics & More: Army RCCTO
(posted: 7 August 2019)
The Army's three-star rapid capabilities chief is rushing to sign a contract on hypersonic missiles in three weeks, announced a new high-energy laser last week and just revealed a plan to build drone-killing microwave weapons - and he's about to host an industry day asking innovators for even more ideas.
More information.
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Lasers, Microwaves, Hypersonics & More: Army RCCTO
(posted: 7 August 2019)
The Army's three-star rapid capabilities chief is rushing to sign a contract on hypersonic missiles in three weeks, announced a new high-energy laser last week and just revealed a plan to build drone-killing microwave weapons - and he's about to host an industry day asking innovators for even more ideas.
More information.
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Lasers, Microwaves, Hypersonics & More: Army RCCTO
(posted: 7 August 2019)
The Army's three-star rapid capabilities chief is rushing to sign a contract on hypersonic missiles in three weeks, announced a new high-energy laser last week and just revealed a plan to build drone-killing microwave weapons - and he's about to host an industry day asking innovators for even more ideas.
More information.
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Lasers, Microwaves, Hypersonics & More: Army RCCTO
(posted: 7 August 2019)
The Army's three-star rapid capabilities chief is rushing to sign a contract on hypersonic missiles in three weeks, announced a new high-energy laser last week and just revealed a plan to build drone-killing microwave weapons - and he's about to host an industry day asking innovators for even more ideas.
More information.
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Lasers, Microwaves, Hypersonics & More: Army RCCTO
(posted: 7 August 2019)
The Army's three-star rapid capabilities chief is rushing to sign a contract on hypersonic missiles in three weeks, announced a new high-energy laser last week and just revealed a plan to build drone-killing microwave weapons - and he's about to host an industry day asking innovators for even more ideas.
More information.
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Pentagon Shelves Neutral Particle Beam Research
(posted: 7 August 2019)
Modern warfare is often characterized by heavy firepower such as guns, tanks and attack aircraft. But as the United States faces operations in the "gray zone" - actions that remain below the level of conventional armed conflict - there is an increasing need for nonlethal options.
More information.
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Lasers, Microwaves, Hypersonics & More: Army RCCTO
(posted: 7 August 2019)
The Army's three-star rapid capabilities chief is rushing to sign a contract on hypersonic missiles in three weeks, announced a new high-energy laser last week and just revealed a plan to build drone-killing microwave weapons - and he's about to host an industry day asking innovators for even more ideas.
More information.
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U.S. Air Force to Spend $31 Million for Research 'Bio-effects' of Directed Energy Weapons
(posted: 1 September 2019)
The Air Force Research Lab, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base has awarded General Dynamics Information Technology a research contract for bioeffects research of directed energy effects.
The contract, announced Friday, is worth more than $30.8 million, provides for research on directed energy systems to assist in transitioning Department of Defense technologies.
More information.
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Turkey Uses Laser Weapon Technology to Shoot Down Chinese UAV Wing Loong II in Libya
(posted: 12 August 2019)
Really important news often goes unnoticed. They occur, no one notices them, but the events mentioned in this news often have consequences that later, having developed to a large scale, make observers gasp - and it's good, if only out of surprise.
On August 4, 2019, one of these events occurred, mentioned in such news, but not noticed by anyone. For the first time, a combat vehicle armed with a combat laser destroyed another combat vehicle on the battlefield. In a real war, on a real battlefield. And no one noticed.
More information.
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Air Force to Deploy Ground-Based Lasers in First Field Test of 'Directed Energy' Weapon
(posted: 2 August 2019)
The Air Force announced Friday it will soon deploy two ground-based laser weapons to an undisclosed location to test how they can be used against small drones, the service's first "operational field test" of an experimental "directed energy" weapon.
More information.
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Here's when the Army wants 50kW lasers on Strykers
(posted: 2 August 2019)
The Army has put money down on a prototype system that aims to put 50kW lasers on a platoon of four Stryker vehicles in the next three years.
Those Strykers are geared to support the Army's Maneuver Short Range Air Defense mission, which is tasked with protecting brigade combat teams from drones, rockets, artillery, mortar and helicopter attacks.
More information.
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Northrop and Raytheon to Compete to Build Laser Weapon for Short-Range Air Defense
(posted: 1 August 2019)
The U.S. Army has awarded a contract each to Northrop Grumman and Raytheon to build a 50-kilowatt-class laser weapon for Stryker combat vehicles for the Short-Range Air Defense (SHORAD) mission, according to an Aug. 1 statement from the service's Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office.
The two companies will build their respective directed-energy weapons as subcontractors to Kord Technologies. The Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, or RCCTO, entered into a $203 million agreement with Kord under the OTA, or other transaction authority, contracting mechanism that is used to rapidly fund the production of prototypes.
More information.
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Army Eyeing Navy's High-Powered Laser to Fight Enemy Drone Swarms
(posted: 16 July 2019)
Army modernization officials are getting help from the Navy to make the service's High Energy Laser program more than twice as powerful for fending off aerial attacks from swarms of enemy drones.
Currently, the Army's High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstrator (HEL TVD) features a 100-kilowatt laser designed to fit on Family of Medium Tactical Vehicle (FMTV) trucks. The service plans to conduct a demonstration of the system's target acquisition, tracking and other capabilities against a range of targets in 2022.
More information.
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Directorate Wants to Change View of Nonlethal Weapons
(posted: 31 July 2019)
Modern warfare is often characterized by heavy firepower such as guns, tanks and attack aircraft. But as the United States faces operations in the "gray zone" - actions that remain below the level of conventional armed conflict - there is an increasing need for nonlethal options.
More information.
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France to Develop Anti-Satellite Laser Weapons For Space Warfare
(posted: 26 July 2019)
On Thursday, French Defense Minister Florence Parly announced the nation's plans to develop anti-satellite laser weapons - though she says the country will only use them in retaliation.
"If our satellites are threatened, we intend to blind those of our adversaries," Parly said, according to Agence France-Presse. "We reserve the right and the means to be able to respond: that could imply the use of powerful lasers deployed from our satellites or from patrolling nano-satellites."
More information.
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Air Force Wants Simulated Wargames to Plan For Lasers, Electro-Magnetic Weapons
(posted: 22 July 2019)
Directed energy weapons-i.e., lasers and high-powered electro-magnetic weapons-are fast becoming a reality for troops and the Air Force wants its airmen to be prepared.
The Air Force Research Lab issued a request for information Friday seeking a vendor that can provide wargame modeling and simulations that include how energy weapons are being used today and how they will be used in the near future.
More information.
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Britain Enters Laser Weapons Race
(posted: 10 July 2019)
Britain's Ministry of Defense announced that it seeks developers of laser- and radio frequency-guided weapons to shoot down drones and other enemy threats.
The concept is not new. The United States first employed non-lethal lasers in military service in 2014, largely to disable enemy electrical sensors, and the United Kingdom spent $37 million on a laser prototype in 2017.
More information.
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Navy arms destroyers with new high-powered laser, changes war tactics
(posted: 8 July 2019)
If swarms of enemy small attack boats armed with guns and explosives approached a Navy ship, alongside missile-armed drones and helicopters closing into strike range, ship commanders would instantly begin weighing defensive options - to include interceptor missiles, electronic warfare, deck-mounted guns or area weapons such as Close-in-Weapons System.
Now, attacks such as these will also be countered with laser weapons being added to the equation, bringing new dimensions to maritime warfare on the open sea.
More information.
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The Pentagon has a Laser that can Identify People from a Distance- by Their Heartbeat
(posted: 27 June 2019)
Everyone's heart is different. Like the iris or fingerprint, our unique cardiac signature can be used as a way to tell us apart. Crucially, it can be done from a distance.
It's that last point that has intrigued US Special Forces. Other long-range biometric techniques include gait analysis, which identifies someone by the way he or she walks. This method was supposedly used to identify an infamous ISIS terrorist before a drone strike. But gaits, like faces, are not necessarily distinctive. An individual's cardiac signature is unique, though, and unlike faces or gait, it remains constant and cannot be altered or disguised.
More information.
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Strategic Air Bases Receive First Counter-UAS Systems
(posted: 1 July 2019)
Several Air Force installations with strategic assets are now armed with systems to protect against small unmanned aircraft that might loiter nearby.
Steve Wert, the Air Force's digital program executive officer helping to roll out counter-UAS systems, said the service had fielded initial capabilities to an undisclosed number of US Strategic Command and Air Force Global Strike Command sites. Speaking at an Air Force Life Cycle Management Conference recently in Dayton, Ohio, Wert described the new systems as "a command-and-control capability integrated with some detection and some jamming," but did not mention kinetic attacks.
More information.
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Former MDA Director: Space-Based Lasers are Coming Sooner Than You Think
(posted: 28 June 2019)
There may be clear divisions between the political parties in many areas of defense, but missile defense-once a highly divisive issue-is now an area of common interest and concern, said Sen. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn).
"The big story here is how little division there is between the parties on these issues," Cooper said. "The President's Budget requested $11.4 billion for missile defense and the Democratic-led Housed Armed Services Committee is giving $11.3 billion."
More information.
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Marines Develop Laser To Fry Drones From JLTVs
(posted: 26 June 2019)
As the Marine Corps prepares to wrap up the first deployment of its innovative mobile counter-drone system to the Middle East, the service is rushing ahead to put lasers on a ground vehicle, with an eye to shooting down drones.
While the deployed Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System - mounted on two Polaris MRZR all-terrain vehicles - can move quickly and electronically jam drones, the Marines are looking for something a little more...well, kinetic.
More information.
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Army Big 6 Gets $10B More Over 2021-2025
(posted: 29 May 2019)
The Army will move about $10 billion more from lower-priority programs to its flagship Big Six over the five years 2021-2025. That's on top of the $33 billion already reallocated in the Future Year Defense Plan for 2020-2024. In particular, the new FYDP will include major increases for lasers and other directed energy weapons, the service's No. 2 civilian said here this morning.
More information.
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UK shoots for new laser weapons against drones, missiles
(posted: 9 July 2019)
Britain is planning to invest up to $162 million developing three directed-energy weapon demonstrators, including one aimed at killing drones, the Ministry of Defence has announced.
The MoD said it had notified industry this week, in what is called a Prior Information Notice, of its intention to procure two laser-based demonstrators and a radio-frequency weapon to "explore the potential of the technology and accelerate its introduction onto the battlefield."
More information.
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The Navy's electromagnetic railgun is undergoing 'shakedown' tests at the White Sands Missile Range
(posted: 25 June 2019)
The Navy's electromagnetic railgun is undergoing what officials described as "essentially a shakedown" of critical systems before finally installing a tactical demonstrator aboard a surface warship, the latest sign that the once-beleaguered supergun may actually end up seeing combat. That pretty much means this is could be the last set of tests before actually slapping this bad boy onto a warship, for once.
More information.
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US Marine Corps to Test Ground-Based 'Drone-Killing' Laser Weapon
(posted: 25 June 2019)
Wanting to improve its tactics in countering unmanned aerial systems, the US Marine Corps is now working on testing the Compact Laser Weapons System (CLaWS) in an effort to provide service members with better options during operations.
The Boeing-created system, according to a June 19 release from the service, will be the first ground-based laser approved by the Pentagon for use by Marines. It is being fitted on the service's Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, Popular Mechanics reported.
More information.
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The Air Force has a new drone-killing microwave weapon named 'Thor'
(posted: 21 June 2019)
U.S. military bases across the globe may soon have a New Mexico-made, high-powered microwave weapon at their disposal to instantaneously down swarms of enemy drones.
The Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base unveiled the weapon Thursday morning in a live demonstration with local reporters, who watched the system effortlessly knock a hovering drone out of the sky with an invisible and inaudible electromagnetic wave.
More information.
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Coming soon to the US Army: Combat-capable hypersonic and laser weapons
(posted: 4 June 2019)
The U.S. Army will field a hypersonic weapon and a directed-energy weapon in less than four years, with the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office leading the charge, according to the RCCTO director.
The office will deliver a battery of combat-capable long-range hypersonic weapons to soldiers by 2023, and it will field a battery of Stryker combat vehicles with 50-kilowatt lasers by late FY22, Lt. Gen. L. Neil Thurgood told reporters during a media roundtable at the Pentagon on June 4.
More information.
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Scholar points to Beijing's 'maritime militia' in the South China Sea after lasers force Australian navy helicopter to land
(posted: 29 May 2019)
Australia's military has confirmed that Navy pilots were targeted with lasers during flights in the hotly contested South China Sea, with informal Chinese militia vessels believed to be behind the attacks.
Beijing has become more assertive in the area, stoking tensions with rival claimants in Southeast Asia as well as Canberra and Washington - traditionally the dominant naval and air power in the Asia-Pacific region.
More information.
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One Lucky Destroyer Crew will Officially be the First to Rock the Navy's Newest Laser Weapon
(posted: 28 May 2019)
The Pearl Harbor-based USS Preble will be the first destroyer to be equipped with a high-energy laser to counter surface craft and unmanned aerial systems, according to a published report, with the Navy planning to one day use the powerful light beams to defend against Chinese or Russian cruise missiles.
More information.
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Army Moves Out On Lasers, Hypersonics: Lt. Gen. Thurgood
(posted: 24 May 2019)
Earlier this week, Army leaders approved a detailed plan to get high-powered microwave and laser weapons into the hands of soldiers, advancing rapidly in parallel to development of hypersonic missiles, Lt. Gen. Neil Thurgood said here. But, he warned the AUSA conference here, directed energy is "not the panacea of all things."
More information.
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When it Comes to Missile-Killing Lasers, the US Navy is Ready to Burn Its Ships
(posted: 22 May 2019)
The U.S. Navy's director of surface warfare is ready to bet the farm on using lasers to shoot down missiles.
The outgoing head of the chief of naval operations' surface warfare directorate, Rear Adm. Ron Boxall, said the Navy is going to get its High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler with Surveillance system, or HELIOS, on the Hawaii-based destroyer Preble in 2021, a moment that he compared with Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez ordering his own ships scuttled to motivate his men.
More information.
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Putin Hails New Russian Laser Weapons
(posted: 17 May 2019)
President Vladimir Putin says that new types of laser weapons developed in Russia will significantly enhance the nation's military capability.
Speaking during Friday's meeting with top officials, Putin specifically mentioned the Peresvet, the military's first laser weapon that entered service last fall.
Peresvet is a high-energy laser, whose specific data and purpose have remained secret. It's believed to be capable of blinding enemy electro-optical devices and downing drones.
More information.
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Key Themes from the 2019 Directed Energy Summit
(posted: 3 May 2019)
It's time to deliver directed energy weapons to the military.
The 2019 Directed Energy Summit wrapped up as one of the best. What's the state of directed energy that emerged? Energized, purposeful, and focused on the warfighter. Click below for this year's top takeaways.
More information.
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The Pentagon Could Put Directed Energy Weapons in Space
(posted: 25 April 2019)
This is part 4 of a 4-part special report on space-based interceptors.
While much attention has been focused on renewed U.S. interest in potentially deploying space-based interceptors, another concept that emerged from President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative in the 1980s is also being reexamined: putting lasers or neutral particle beams in space to shoot down enemy missiles.
"Directed energy to me is where we want to go in the long run," Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin said in September during a roundtable on Capitol Hill. "We will be pushing advances in directed energy forward for the next few years."
More information.
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Dynetics-Lockheed Team Beats Out Raytheon to Build 100-Kilowatt Laser Weapon
(posted: 15 May 2019)
A Dynetics and Lockheed Martin team have beaten out Raytheon in a head-to-head competition to build a 100-kilowatt laser weapon for the U.S. Army.
The Army awarded a $130 million contract to the Dynetics-Lockheed team to build the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command's High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstrator (HEL TVD) laser system.
Under the program, Dynetics - the prime contractor - will integrate the laser system onto the Family of Medium-Tactical Vehicles, with the effort culminating in a test of the entire system in 2022 at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
More information.
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Physicists Propose Perfect Material for Lasers
(posted: 9 May 2019)
Weyl semimetals are a recently discovered class of materials, in which charge carriers behave the way electrons and positrons do in particle accelerators. Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Ioffe Institute in St. Petersburg have shown that these materials represent perfect gain media for lasers. The research findings were published in Physical Review B.
The 21st-century physics is marked by the search for phenomena from the world of fundamental particles in tabletop materials.
More information.
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Pew! Pew! Pew! Laser-armed Warships No Longer Science Fiction
(posted: 6 May 2019)
The Navy has never been closer to fielding lasers and other directed-energy weapons.
Technological challenges remain, but the sea service is slated to test a 150-kilowatt spectrally beam-combined fiber laser on the amphibious platform dock ship Portland this year.
And by 2021, the Navy's director of surface warfare, Rear Adm. Ron Boxall, intends to mount a nastier warship killer on a guided-missile destroyer.
"This is something we have to have on our ships," he told the audience at the 2019 Directed Energy Summit in Washington, D.C., on March 20.
More information.
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Experimental Laser Weapon Downs Multiple Missiles in Test
(posted: 3 May 2019)
An early test of an experimental system that serves as the precursor to a fighter jet's laser weapon successfully shot down multiple air-launched missiles last month, the Air Force Research Laboratory said Friday.
The Air Force's Self-Protect High-Energy Laser Demonstrator program, known as SHiELD, on April 23 reached a key milestone when a ground-based test asset completed a series of tests at the Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
More information.
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The UK's New "Dragonfire" Laser Weapon Is Weirdly Steampunk
(posted: 1 May 2019)
The Royal Navy is testing a strikingly steampunk mechanical energy system for its Dragonfire Laser Directed Energy Weapon on its most advanced ships. And the new system's design originally came from an unlikely source: the Williams Formula 1 team.
The Royal Navy is hoping its new Flywheel Energy Storage System (FESS) will reduce the impact on the rest of the ship when it needs to draw huge amounts of power for the energy weapon - while avoiding safety concerns such as lithium batteries starting fires on board a ship.
More information.
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Army Works to Slim Down Powerful New Laser Defense System
(posted: 1 May 2019)
The Army is working on a powerful new 100-kilowatt laser system to defend against enemy missiles, artillery and drone swarms but will eventually have to make it smaller and lighter to deploy.
"We're trying to get it small enough and efficient enough to put on a platform," Robert Snead, an engineer with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command based at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, said Thursday, referring to the High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstrator (HEL TVD), which the service described as being in the "pre-prototype" stage.
More information.
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Air Force's Mjölnir? Service Testing THOR Anti-Drone System
(posted: 25 April 2019)
Movie fans are anticipating the new "Avengers: Endgame" film -- even the U.S. Air Force, which recently named its new experimental counter-drone program after an Avengers superhero: Thor.
The Tactical High-power Microwave Operational Responder, or THOR, is in developmental testing to take out smaller drones at the speed of light, according to officials with the Air Force Research Lab.
More information.
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Directed Energy Summit 2019 Media Highlights
(posted: 22 April 2019)
For 5 years, the Directed Energy Summit has been a central event within the directed energy community. We have seen the promise of directed energy turn into real need, as the technology and threat environment have made these weapon systems an imperative. Yes, it is "time to deliver" Directed Energy.
Industry leaders shared their thoughts on directed energy at the summit. Click below for the highlights of the summit from the media's perspective.
More information.
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Shanahan: China Is Deploying Directed Energy Weapons
(posted: 9 April 2019)
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on April 9 bluntly asserted that China's PLA is "deploying directed energy (DE) weapons," adding that "Russia is doing many of the same things." In perhaps the strongest rhetoric yet from a Trump administration official about counterspace threats to US satellite systems, Shanahan said: "Both China and Russia have weaponized space with the intent to hold American space capabilities at risk."
More information.
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Leidos Awarded $19.3M for Work on Laser Weapon System
(posted: 8 April 2019)
Leidos has been awarded a $19.3 million contract for system integration and field testing of a laser weapon system being developed at Kirtland Air Force base in New Mexico.
The contract provides for advancing work on state-of-the-art of laser weapon system technology through research and development of laser weapon systems, as well as evaluate performance in relevant operational environments, the Air Force announced Friday.
More information.
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The Drone Zappers
(posted: 1 April 2019)
The Air Force's deployed security forces will soon be able to knock down small drones at the click of a button using lasers and microwave weapons, marking the service's first test of directed-energy weapons in theater.
Two Raytheon systems-a laser and a high-power microwave-will deploy to an undisclosed overseas base this spring to defend them from prying eyes and potential mischief posed by commercial drones outfitted with cameras and even weapons, according to Michael Jirjis, who oversees directed-energy initiatives in the Air Force's Strategic Development, Planning, and Experimentation Office (SDPE).
More information.
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Will Hypersonics Finally Force the Pentagon to Integrate Kinetic and Non-Kinetic Defenses?
(posted: 25 March 2019)
If the United States is to have a chance at warding off new hypersonic weapons being tested and fielded by Russia and China, its defensive framework will need to integrate cyber and other emerging "non-kinetic" capabilities. But it appears that industry and Defense Department requirements officials are focusing on creating kinetic interceptors, giving dangerously short shrift to the new capabilities. Nor does recent experience suggest that the Pentagon is integrating these new defenses tightly enough to bring them to bear on these new high-speed weapons.
More information.
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Laser Weapons: A Blueprint for Adding Them to the Force
(posted: 20 March 2019)
The country that is first to develop and field battlefield lasers will have a distinct military advantage. Directed energy weapons promise to complement kinetic weapons and help fight off various emerging threats, such as swarms of drones, fast attack boats, and cruise missiles. And the recently released Missile Defense Review calls for studying the potential of space-based lasers to intercept ballistic missiles.
More information.
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New Threats have Pentagon Laser-Focused
(posted: 25 January 2019)
In the mid-1990s, someone at the Pentagon came up with a novel solution to a vexing problem: how to shoot down enemy missiles when they are most vulnerable, well before they approach their targets. The answer: Mount a powerful laser on a modified Boeing 747 that can zap missiles in their boost phase, when they are slowly lifting off and laden with fuel.
More information.
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A DoD AI Expert is Coming - and That Could Mean Big Things for Directed Energy
(posted: 21 March 2019)
A vacant Pentagon position on artificial intelligence will be filled "quite soon," with a focus on cross-cutting artificial intelligence through various technologies, according to undersecretary of research and engineering Michael Griffin.
Griffin, speaking to the Directed Energy Summit March 20, was asked about how AI can be applied to directed-energy weaponry, which elicited him to say, "What I know about AI can be written on the back of a tiny postage stamp."
More information.
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Microwave Weapons Moving Toward Operational Use
(posted: 20 March 2019)
Two high-power microwave programs, the shyer cousin of lasers in the directed-energy limelight, will become more visible as the Air Force tests them over the next few years.
"We are pretty much the acknowledged center of gravity for high-power microwave weapons S&T in the services," Kelly Hammett, the Air Force Research Laboratory's directed-energy branch director, said Wednesday. "We were able to get some funding from OSD on behalf of all the services to build some ground-based high-power microwave prototypes. Those are being delivered this year and they will go into our experimentation campaign."
More information.
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Pentagon Wants to Test A Space-Based Weapon in 2023
(posted: 14 March 2019)
Defense officials want to test a neutral particle-beam in orbit in fiscal 2023 as part of a ramped-up effort to explore various types of space-based weaponry. They've asked for $304 million in the 2020 budget to develop such beams, more powerful lasers, and other new tech for next-generation missile defense. Such weapons are needed, they say, to counter new missiles from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. But just figuring out what might work is a difficult technical challenge.
More information.
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Lasers, AI, Hypersonics Top DARPA's Small-Biz Wishlist
(posted: 5 March 2019)
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on Friday laid out the focus areas for its Small Business Innovation Research, or SBIR, and Small Business Technology Transfer, or STTR, programs. Over the next year, DARPA will recruit companies to participate in cutting-edge national security research efforts like advancing "third wave" artificial intelligence, developing miniature satellites, building lethal lasers and upgrading the country's nuclear arsenal.
More information.
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USAF Wants to Study More Powerful Airborne Laser to Follow F-15 Pod
(posted: 24 January 2019)
The Air Force is beginning to think about more powerful laser weapons that could replace a less-advanced beam on a fighter jet, according to an Air Force Research Laboratory document posted earlier this month.
This six-month study, dubbed the Compact High-Energy Laser Subsystem Engineering Assessment (CHELSEA), asks industry to look at ways to build a weapon that is significantly more powerful than that created by the Self-Protect High-Energy Laser Demonstrator program.
More information.
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U.S. Air Force Tests Microwave, Laser Weapon Systems
(posted: 22 January 2019)
The U.S. Air Force announced it is planning future experiments involving laser and microwave energy weapons after recent successes in testing sessions.
Future experiments in the Directed Energy Experimentation Campaign are planned at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the Air Force said Tuesday in a statement.
More information.
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Next Steps for the Pentagon's New Space Sensors for Missile Defense
(posted: 21 January 2019)
The Pentagon studied the problem for years and concluded that sensors in space are the only solution to defend the United States from Russian and Chinese hypersonic weapons.
The Space Sensor Layer was one of the headlines from last week's release of the 2019 Missile Defense Review, the first update to the nation's missile defense posture in nine years.
More information.
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704th Test Group successfully leads Directed Energy Experimentation Campaign
(posted: 22 January 2019)
After the success of the first range experiment of the Directed Energy Experimentation Campaign at White Sands Missile Range, in October 2018, the 704th Test Group's Directed Energy Combined Test Force is now planning future experiments in support of the campaign.
More information.
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Fast-Tracked Laser Prototyping Effort Scrapped
(posted: 22 January 2019)
The Air Force recently canceled its fledgling initiative to prototype a high-energy laser for base and aircraft defense because it is still fleshing out its directed-energy priorities, an Air Force Research Laboratory official told Air Force Magazine.
The High-Energy Laser Flexible Prototype (HFP) effort aimed to build a land-based laser to protect bases from airborne threats, then scale it up to fly on an aircraft.
More.
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