DIRECTED ENERGY PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY


2012 Directed Energy Symposium Short Courses
26 November 2012 Albuquerque, New Mexico

These short courses were offered in conjunction with the Fifteenth Annual Directed Energy Symposium, held 26-30 November 2012 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits are awarded upon successful completion of these DEPS short courses.


Morning Courses

1: Introduction to HEL

2: Introduction to HPM (Limited C)

3: V&V and Quality Code in DT&E (Cancelled)
All Day Courses

4: Beam Control for Laser Systems

5: HPM Simulation Management Software
and ICEPIC HPM Source Modeling Software
Afternoon Courses

6: Pulsed Laser Effects (Secret)

7: Directed Energy Targeting (Secret)

8: Fighter 101 (Cancelled)


Course 1.  Introduction to High Energy Laser Systems

Classification: Unclassified, Public Release

Instructor: John Albertine, Consultant

Duration: Half-day course, starts at 0800

CEUs awarded: 0.35

Course Description: This lecture will introduce the field of HEL weapons and their associated technologies using an interweaving of technical requirements, history, and accomplishments. The basic attributes of HEL weapons will be covered, leading into discussions of laser-material interaction, lethality, potential weapon applications, system requirements, laser power scaling, propagation, and beam control. DoD interest in tactical applications, current technical issues, and areas of research emphasis will be highlighted.

Intended Audience: This course is geared to those with a technical background who seek an overview of HEL technology and the current state of the art. Individuals who are beginning to work in the field or technical managers who wish an integrated overview would benefit from the class.

Instructor Biography: Mr. Albertine has his B.S. and M.S. in Physics from Rose Polytechnic Institute and Johns Hopkins University respectively. Prior to working for the Navy, he was a senior staff physicist in the Space Division of The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. From 1976 through 1997, he worked in the Navy's High Energy Laser (HEL) Program Office, directing the Navy’s technology development for the last 15 years. During that time, he led the development and test of the first megawatt class HEL system in the free world. He retired from civil service in 1997 and now consults for OSD, the Air Force, ONR, the Navy HEL program office, and in the Directed Energy field. Mr. Albertine was a member of the Air Force Science Advisory Board and has served as Executive Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors of the Directed Energy Professional Society. Mr. Albertine is also a DEPS Fellow.


Course 2.  Introduction to High Power Microwave Systems

Classification: Unclassified, Limited Distribution C

Instructor: Clifford Woods

Duration: Half-day course, starts at 0800

CEUs awarded: 0.35

Course Description: This course will provide an introduction to RF Directed Energy weapons, also known as High Power Microwave (HPM) weapons. The course consists of four parts: 1) a general introduction to the basic terms and concepts, 2) a discussion of the varous types of effects that can be induced and how they are characterized, 3) the technologies that enable RF-DEW weaponization, and 4) hardening techniques and technologies.

At the end of the class, students will know what RF-DEWs are and how they differ from classical Electronic Warfare and nuclear EMP. Students will learn the various ways in which microwaves couple into a target (i.e., front door/back door, in-band/out-of-band) and some of the many sorts of effects that they can precipitate. Technology discussions will show the difference between narrow band (NB) and ultra-wide band (UWB) sources, antennas and diagnostics, as well as the principal elements of the power systems needed to support them. The course concludes with a discussion of hardening techniques and technologies.

Topics to be covered include:

  • Definitions, motivation, notional concepts
  • Effects on targets of interest
  • Technology - Sources, Antennas, Diagnostics, Power Conditioning and Power Sources
  • Hardening Technologies and Techniques

Intended Audience: Newcomers to the field of RF-DEW or managers with some background in science and engineering will benefit the most from this course.

Instructor Biography: Dr. Woods is the Technical Advisor for AFRL/RDHA (High Power Microwave (HPM) Applications Branch) and the Chief Scientist for the Payload of the CHAMP JCTD. He has worked in RDHA for 13 years. Prior to that Dr. Woods was a Senior Scientist working for Mission Research Corporation for 14 years in HPM applications. He has extensive experience in producing HPM systems including Wide Band and Narrow Band.


Course 3.  V&V and Quality Code in DT&E (Cancelled)


Course 4.  Beam Control for Laser Systems

Classification: Unclassified, Public Release

Instructor: Paul Merritt

Duration: Full-day course, starts at 0800

CEUs awarded: 0.7

Course Description: This class will include an overview of existing beam control technologies and will look at beam control systems envisioned for the future. The class starts with the development of performance equations of a propagated laser beam and shows how disturbances, like jitter, degrade performance. Supporting technologies that include random data processing techniques and control system design will be reviewed prior to discussing beam control designs. Pointing and tracking beam control components and systems will be discussed. The topics of gimbal systems and alignment systems will be described and math models developed. Controls modeling for adaptive optics will be presented. The concepts for future fiber laser beam control systems will be introduced. The students will obtain an introduction to the topics mentioned above and will be given a copy of the book "Beam Control for Laser Systems" by Paul Merritt.

Topics to be covered include:

  1. System performance equations
  2. Use of random data to characterize a control system
  3. Classical design of a control loop
  4. Small angle jitter control
  5. Large angle pointing control, gimbals
  6. Tracking algorithms
  7. Adaptive optics controls modeling and introduction to fiber systems
  8. Analysis of a complete beam control system

Intended Audience: The class assumes the students have an engineering background and understand the use of differential equations. The class is aimed at persons who will be analyzing beam control system performance, but also should be of use to managers who desire to understand the techniques available for analysis of beam control systems. The class will cover the necessary introductory material, but will progress through this material at a fast pace.

Instructor Biography: Paul Merritt received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 1974 and the same year started working on beam control for laser systems at the Air Force Weapons Lab. He has continued in this field working for the Air Force, Hughes, Boeing, and the University of NM over the last 30 years. His specialty is control theory applied to beam control systems. He taught classes on random processes and control theory at the University of NM.


Course 5.  HPM Simulation Management Software and ICEPIC HPM source modeling software

Classification: Unclassified, Public Release

Instructors:
    - Nathaniel Lockwood
    - Peter J. Mardahl

Duration: Full-day course, starts at 0800

CEUs awarded: 0.70

Course Description: The High Powered Microwave High Performance Computing Software Applications Institute (HPM HSAI) software suite is designed to perform high fidelity simulations of a full, integrated HPM system, from basic components, such as pulse power, source, and antenna, to evaluating battlefield effectiveness. This class is intended for potential users of the HPM HSAI software suite who have a basic familiarity with scientific and engineering level simulations and have physics and/or engineering degrees. Instruction on simulation codes that form the HPM HSAI software suite such as Joint RF Effects Model (JREM) and the Improved Concurrent Electromagnetic Particle-In-Cell (ICEPIC) are intended as introductions to the capabilities and operation of the software.

The ICEPIC code was developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Directed Energy Directorate to evaluate High Power Microwave system performance. The ICEPIC code enables virtual prototyping of an HPM source or system using physics based 3-D tim dependent Finite Difference Time Domain and particle-in-cell methods. The HPM Simulation Management Software (HSMS) provides a graphical user interface that enables the assembly of multi-level and multi-physics codes to simulate both the operation and military effectiveness of an HPM system. The HSMS software enables easy access to and management of simulations performed on the defense shared resources center (DSRC) supercomputers which are available to research DOD organizations. This tutorial will provide a hands-on demonstration of how to simulate various devices using ICEPIC within the HSMS framework. In addition, the class will provide a tutorial on pre and post processing tools such as visualization, parameter scan, and optimization tools that can be used with ICEPIC. The end goal of the course is to have the user leave with the software and the knowledge of how to develop simulations which accurately predict the performance of an HPM system or other plasma/vacuum electromagnetic device.

Topics to be covered include:

  1. Introduction to Improved Concurrent Electromagnetic Particle-In-Cell (ICEPIC) Software
  2. Introduction to the HPM Institute Simulation Management Software (HSMS)

Intended Audience: Students who can profit from your course are technical personnel with at least an undergraduate education in science or engineering. Some experience in the field of high performance computing, high powered microwave systems and scientific/engineering simulation will greatly improve the utility of the course to the student.

Instructor Biography: Dr. Nathaniel Lockwood earned his B.S. from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Physics and his MS and PhD from the Air Force Institute of Technology. He is a plasma physicist with more than 13 years of experience in leading, developing, managing, and simulating defense related technologies and 12 years of experience as an officer in the USAF. His expertise includes collisional plasma phenomenology and transport, relativistic electron beam interactions with matter, gas chemical kinetics, terahertz explosives detection, electronic warfare, High Power Microwave (HPM) devices and field emission electron guns. He has developed and implemented several computational models and performed numerous investigative studies of plasma-material interactions, high power microwave and terahertz source components, and electronic warfare systems.

Dr. Peter J. Mardahl holds two B.S. degrees from University of California, Berkeley, in Electrical Engineering and Nuclear Engineering, awarded 1992. In 2001 he finished his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Berkeley, and in 2002 joined the Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland AFB, NM. His research has included simulated laser-plasma interactions, high power magnetron design, and PIC code development. He is now working as a computational physicist studying high power microwave devices.


Course 6.  Pulsed Laser Effects - A General Overview

Classification: Classified, Secret

Instructors:
    - Joel Davis, Ball Aerospace & Technologies
    - Dr. Debashis Satpathi, Ball Aerospace & Technologies

Duration: Half-day course, starts at 1300

CEUs awarded: 0.35

Course Description: (U) The lethal effects of continuous-wave (CW) lasers have been studied extensively over the past four decades as laser technology has matured through demonstration programs such as the Tactical High Energy Laser, Airborne Laser, and Joint High Power Solid State Laser. Another emerging class of lasers that is showing promise for weapon applications is pulsed lasers. Industry has found numerous precision-cutting applications for RP lasers. During the Strategic Defense Initiative, a significant effort was undertaken to study pulsed laser effects against metals, composite and other materials. Pulsed laser effects have also been studied extensively for anti-sensor applications. The high instantaneous peak irradiance delivered within a short pulse generates an ablative effect that is significantly different than comparable CW laser effects. This course will provide a review of the physics associated with pulsed laser effects on materials and components along with results from past test programs. Discussion will be limited to 10-10 to 10-3 regimes, and will not include femotosecond pulse laser effects since those effects have been discussed in other courses. In addition to a broad discussion of pulsed laser effects on various materials, a review of plasma generation, countermeasure resilience, potential applications and the current state of pulsed laser technology will be presented.

Topices to be covered:

  1. Introduction - Review of terminology, advantages and disadvantages of repetitively-pulsed lasers
  2. Phenomenology - a discussion of propagation, plasma generation, and pulse effects on a range of materials
  3. Sensor effects - a discussion of laser effects on sensors
  4. State-of-the-art - a discussion of current pulse laser technology
  5. Applications - a discussion of applications for pulsed lasers

Intended Audience: This course will benefit weapon designers who wish to understand how to size pulsed laser for weapon applications. Technology managers will also benefit from understanding by understanding the potential of pulsed lasers for future applications.

Instructor Biographies: Mr. Joel S. Davis is Chief Scientist of the Systems Engineering Solutions (SES) Group at Ball Aerospace. He has a B.S. in physics from MIT and an M.S. in Astro-Geophysics from the University of Colorado. He has worked in the aerospace arena for more than 35 years. Much of his current work supports the AFRL Directed Energy Test and Analysis organizations, and the USAF Satellite Assessment Center. He has built numŽerous computer models/simulations and data bases and engaged in analysis efforts related to EO/IR sensor and laser system effectiveness; EO/IR sensor susceptibility to laser-induced effects; meteorological characterization; EO/IR-specific climatologies; test measureŽment requirements; laser-material effects; laser-sensor effects; laser weapon engagement sensitivities and laser predictive avoidance methodology development for both direct and glint-related laser predictive avoidance. As Chief Scientist for Ball SES, he also oversees its Internal Research and Development program.

Dr. Satpathi received his and Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of New Mexico in 1998. Since then, he has been employed in various academic and industrial organizations as an R&D engineer. He has been at Ball Aerospace & Technologies C orp., since 2004 and has designed and executed various CW High Energy and Pulsed Laser effects experiments in support of the MDA Airborne Laser (ABL) Program, the DARPA Demonstration Laser Weapon System (DLWS), the High Energy Laser Joint Technology Office (HEL-JTO) and the AFRL Aircraft Self Protect Program (ASP). Dr. Satpathi has published 10 papers in peer-reviewed journals, over 30 papers in various conference proceedings and holds two US patents.


Course 7.  Directed Energy Targeting

Classification: Classified, Secret

Instructor: Janice (Jay) Gourley, LtCol, USAF Retired

Duration: Half-day course, starts at 1300

CEUs awarded: 0.35

Course Description: This course will provide an overview of the joint targeting process. It will begin with Targeting Fundamentals which explains the targeting process, roles and responsibilities and Battle Damage Assessment (BDA). It will then explain intelligence requirements for directed energy, highlighting uncertainties and shortfalls experienced during DE testing conducted by AFRL. The course will end by describing work done to overcome the deficiencies. It includes information from the Joint Munitions Effectiveness Manual Directed Energy and Non-Lethal Working Group and the process AFRL used in RFW testing. CHAMP participation in the Terminal Fury exercise will be used as an example throughout the short course.

Topics to be covered include:

  1. Targeting Fundamentals
  2. The Joint Targeting Process
  3. Joint Targeting Products
  4. Joint Targeting Roles and Responsibilities
  5. Battle Damage Assessment (BDA)
  6. Intel Requirements for Directed Energy Targeting
  7. JMEM DE & NL Target Vulnerability and Weapons Effectiveness Process for Directed Energy
  8. AFRL Process for RFW Targeting
  9. CHAMP Targeting Scenario

Intended Audience: This course is designed for program managers who are thinking of transitioning their program to operational use. Understanding the targeting process and how directed energy fits into it may guide some program decisions so the system can be supported during transition.

Instructor Biography: Janice (Jay) Gourley is currently the Senior Directed Energy Intelligence Analyst at the Air Force Research Laboratory. She retired from the Air Force after 20 years as an Air Force Intelligence Officer with over 12 years of operational kinetic targeting experience. During the past nearly four years at AFRL, she has been the primary intelligence support for Counter-electronic HPM Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP).


Course 8.  Fighter 101 (Cancelled)


 
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Last updated: 9 December 2012