These short courses were offered in conjunction with the 2016 Directed Energy Systems Symposium, held in Portsmouth, Virginia on 12-16 September 2016. Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits were awarded for completion of these DEPS short courses.
Course 1. Introduction to High Energy Laser Systems Classification: Unclassified, Public Release Instructor: John Wachs, Schafer 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. John Wachs worked as a civilian employee for the Army in Huntsville, AL during his entire 42 year career, which was devoted to directed energy (DE) research and development. The first part of his career focused on field testing of high energy laser devices. For the remainder of his career, Mr. Wachs managed the development and testing of DE systems for both tactical and strategic military applications. Since his retirement from Army civilian service in 2010, he has provided part time support to the High Energy Laser Joint Technology Office through Schafer Corporation as a greybeard advisor. Course 2. Introduction to RF Systems Classification: Unclassified, Limited Distribution D (Restricted to U.S. citizens who are employees of the U.S. Department of Defense or its contractors) Instructor: Dr. Mark Rader, Space and Missile Defense Command 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:
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. Mark Rader works in high power RF-DEW research at the Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville, Alabama Course 3. An Intuitive Introduction to the Physics of High Energy Lasers Classification: Unclassified, Public Release Instructor: Dave Kiel, NAVSEA Duration: Half-day course, runs 0800-1200 CEUs awarded: 0.35 Course Description: High Power Lasers (HEL) weapons show promise to greatly improve the US military’s ability to fight, offering speed of light engagement, deep magazines, and ability to "dial-an-effect". This half day short course will cover the language used and basic physics of the technology of HEL weapons by approaching the topics with intuitive explanations and minimal use of complex mathematics. Topics to be covered include:
Intended Audience: The course is designed for people new to the field who need to quickly develop an understanding of the key topics in order to be successful technical managers of HEL projects. It should help them speak the language, enable them to ask the hard questions, and accurately translate expectations between the non-technical warfighter, the acquisition community, and the scientists and engineers doing the work. However, anyone who is new to the field and just wants an insightful look at the technology of HEL weapons will also benefit. Those with a technical background will gain the most from the course content, but since many of the principles are explained with basic concepts, non-technical majors should achieve significant insight as well. Instructor Biography: Capt. (USN Ret) David Kiel entered the Navy in 1982 and served on various ships as a Surface Warfare Officer. After his initial sea tours, he attended the Naval Post Graduate School and received his M.S. in Physics specializing in Optics and Laser Physics. After graduation he transferred out of the Surface Warfare community and became an Engineering Duty Officer specializing in weapons development and acquisition. Subsequently he served at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division doing research in High Power Microwaves, managed Electronic Warfare development programs in PEO IWS, and was the Program Manager for the Surface Navy Directed Energy and Electric Weapons program office where he is led the efforts of the Surface Navy to develop and possibly field a High Energy Laser and Rail Gun in the Navy. Currently he is the Head of the Directed Energy Warfare Office at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren VA. Course 4. Introduction to Laser Beam Quality Measures Classification: Unclassified, Public Release Instructor: Sean Ross, AFRL/DE Duration:Full-day course, runs 0800-1700 CEUs awarded: 0.70 Course Description: This full-day short course covers the general subject of high power laser beam quality. Topics covered include: definitions and applications of common measures of beam quality including Brightness, Power-in-the-bucket, M-squared, 'times diffraction limited', strehl ratio, beam parameter product etc. Special emphasis will be given to choosing an appropriate beam quality metric, tracing the metric to the application of the laser system and to various conceptual pitfalls which arise in this field. Material presented will come from general scientific literature as well as original work done by Dr. Ross and Dr. Pete Latham, both from the Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate. Intended Audience: This course should benefit anyone with an interest in laser beam quality, including program managers, scientists, engineers, and military personnel who are not experts in the field. Instructor Biography: Dr. Sean Ross has been with the Air Force Research Laboratory, Directed Energy Directorate, High Power Solid State Laser Branch since he received his PhD from the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL) in 1998. Research interests include nonlinear frequency conversion, high power solid state lasers, thermal management and laser beam quality. Beginning in 2000, frustration with commercial beam quality devices led to the work eventually presented in the Journal of Directed Energy, Vol. 2 No. 1 Summer 2006 "Appropriate Measures and Consistent Standard for High Energy Laser Beam Quality". This paper and its conference version (presented at the 2005 DEPS Symposium) have received awards from the Directed Energy Professional Society and the Directed Energy Directorate. Course 5. Tri-Service HEL Lethality Testing & Modeling Classification: Unclassified, Limited Distribution C (Restricted to U.S. citizens who are employees of the U.S. Government or its contractors) Instructors: Duration: Full-day course, runs 0800-1700 CEUs awarded: 0.7 Course Description: The Tri-Service Lethality short course consists of two distinct sessions as described below. The Lethality Testing/Equipment Session will provide a discussion of all elements of HEL Lethality testing. The course will address data collection standards to be applied during the planning and execution of the test to assure meaningful and accurate data is collected. It will describe measurement techniques for measuring beam profile and other laser parameters during the execution of the test. Experimental test setup and processes will be described along with data acquisition requirements for targets, facility and test conditions as well as the instrumentation and equipment necessary to acquire those measurements. The testing session will conclude with a discussion of testing strategy for successful conduct of Dynamic Testing. This will include development of test matrices to describe all the key test parameters as well as techniques and methods to execute HEL Lethality full scale target testing. The Modeling & Simulation Tools/Techniques Session will describe the models, codes and tools utilized to analyze and predict Laser System performance in a variety of ground-based, air-based and at-sea based scenarios. Model discussions will include high-fidelity physics based models as well as fast-running codes to provide vulnerability assessment for system level modeling codes. The high-fidelity modeling will describe the key parameters and the physics associated with laser / material interaction. Engineering-level modeling codes will be described that identifies the key target and laser parameters used to analyze a wide set of target scenarios and engagements. The full scope of end-to-end modeling will be described as used in DoD Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) decision processes. This session will be concluded with a description and demonstration of the HEL JTO published Laser Lethality Knowledge Base. Intended Audience: Students attending this course should have an undergraduate degree in science or engineering. The course is tailored for the system program manager, system designer, and the lethality analyst who are interested in learning the full gamut of HEL lethality and target vulnerability analysis and testing. Experience in the field would be helpful but not necessary. Instructor Biographies: Dr. Christopher Lloyd is currently leading the Navy’s High Energy Laser Lethality program. He has been a Lead Scientist at NSWC Dahlgren since 2009, where he serves as the Lethality IPT Lead for the Solid State Laser-Technology Maturation program (SSL-TM). He worked at the Naval Research Laboratory for 9 years, supporting material fabrication and laser testing efforts for PMS-405 and NSWC Dahlgren. He has coordinated several HEL lethality field and laboratory tests and collaborated jointly with the Army and Air Force lethality teams to support the Navy’s SSL-TM, HEL JTO and Ground Based Air Defense (GBAD) laser programs. Dr. Lloyd received his Ph.D. in Physical Sciences from George Mason University in 2009. Mr. Chuck LaMar leads the U.S. Army High Energy Laser Lethality program. As such, Mr. LaMar led the Directed Energy Alternative system engineering for the recent U.S. Army Analysis of Alternatives. He is also the program manager for the Army’s Solid State Laser Testbed; a facility dedicated to lethality and propagation studies for High Energy Lasers. In addition, he represents the Army on the JTO Lethality and Beam Control TAWG. He has written over 50 professional papers and publications in the field of High Energy Lasers. Mr. Robert Ulibarri is a Senior General Engineer with AFRL working in the laser effects branch. He has been involved in effects testing and analysis for over 15 years specifically supporting SBL, ABL and, currently, evaluation of tactical targets of interest to the Air Force. He has conducted numerous laser effects field tests at such facilities as HELSTF and AEDC. He is currently supporting the High Energy Laser - Future Air Dominance Study (AFRL/ACC study) and the upcoming DLWS field test effort. He has a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of New Mexico. Mr. Darren Luke is a Mechanical Engineer for the Air Force Research Laboratory Laser Effects Research Branch. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Engineering from the University of New Mexico with an emphasis in Computational Solid Mechanics. He has 10 years experience in high fidelity model development for laser effects applications with an emphasis in thermal transport, laser-material interaction, high temperature progressive damage plasticity, fracture mechanics, fluid dynamics, V&V methods, uncertainty quantification, finite element analysis and particle methods. He has been involved in laser vulnerability studies for tactical and strategic targets and is currently the laser effects modeling lead at AFRL/RDLE and is the synergistic effects IPT lead for the multi-disciplinary Integrated Weapons Environment for Analysis program. Robert Roybal is the Laser Effects Research Branch Acting Chief for the Directed Energy Laser Division. The Laser Effects Research Branch is the AFRL leader in high energy laser vulnerability testing and laser material interaction modeling, providing target vulnerability criteria and requirements to laser platform developers. The primary mission of the Branch is to establish laser weapon lethality, target vulnerability, and effects for the future battlespace. Robert began his career with the AF Research Laboratory formally the AF Weapons Laboratory located at Kirtland AFB in December 1983. During his career, he served as a Research Engineer, as a Section Chief for the Tactical Targets Lethality Section, as Deputy Branch Chief for the Laser Effect Research Branch, and presently as Acting Branch Chief of the Laser Effects Research Branch. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Mexico in 1983, 1994, respectively. Additionally, he is a senior member of the HEL JTO Lethality Technical Area Working Group and Conference Chair for the Directed Energy Professional Society’s Annual Lethality Conference. His technical areas of interest include the following: high energy laser interaction with materials; laser ablation; laser coupling; structural response to HEL in air flow; In his current position as the Laser Effects Research Branch Acting Chief, he supervises 52 civilians, military, and contractors. Course 6. Laser Deconfliction Classification: Unclassified, Limited Distribution C (Restricted to U.S. citizens who are employees of the U.S. Government or its contractors) Instructors: Day/Time: Half-day course, starts at 1300 CEUs awarded: 0.35 Course Description: This course is intended to teach the "Why, Who, What, How and What's New" of Laser Deconfliction (LD) - the process by which assets are protected from accidental illumination by lasers. Predictive Avoidance (PA), protecting space assets and Airspace Deconfliction (AD), protecting air assets, will also be covered in the course. As the AD process is not as mature as the PA process, it will not be covered in as much detail. PA and AD are critical pieces of the testing process for DoD and NSF laser systems and a knowledgeable and proactive approach by the testing organization can maximize test windows and minimize frustration. The course is also intended to help the laser community work together in this area and provide a consistent source of information on current issues, capabilities developed by other groups, and what's in store for the future. The course has recently been updated to include the Navy's recent development of a hybrid safety system and QRC deployment. The goal of this course is to familiarize the student with the reasons behind PA, the process for working with the Laser Clearing House (LCH) as well as tools and points of contact available to hopefully simplify and clarify the process. In addition, the course will cover efforts in the community to standardize the process and make the safety requirements more in line with current probabilistic risk assessment methodology. Topics to be covered include:
Intended Audience: Anyone who is currently involved or anticipates involvement in laser testing will benefit from this course. Test planners and managers as well as those technically involved with the testing are welcome. Instructor Biographies: Heather Witts is the DE Engineer for the JFCC SPACE/JSpOC. In that role she advises JFCC SPACE and laser programs in carrying out the Laser Clearinghouse mission. She was accepted into the Navy Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate (NuPOC) Program in 2001 and graduated from Luther College with a BA in Math and Physics in May 2003. She received her commission in December 2003, completed sea tours on USS IWO JIMA and USS DWIGHT D EISENHOWER, and passed the nuclear engineers exam. In August 2008, then LT Lehmann reported to JFCC SPACE/J95 at Vandenberg AFB as Deputy Chief of the Directed Energy Branch where she spent most of her time dedicated to carrying out the LCH mission. In late 2010 she transitioned out of the active force, into the Navy Reserves, and became an AF civilian - remaining in a similar position at JFCC SPACE. She obtained a Masters Degree in Engineering Management and was married in 2011. Ms. Witts is primarily responsible for deconfliction related policy, new implementation strategies, and deconfliction related technology. LeAnn Brasure works for Schafer Corporation supporting the HEL JTO as part of their technical team. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a BS in Physics and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force. She obtained her Masters Degree in nuclear physics through the Air Force Institute of Technology and retired from the Air Force after 24 years of active duty service. During her active duty time she had assignments including WSMC (Vandenberg AFB), AFTAC (Patrick AFB) as well as a physics instructor at the Air Force Academy. She began to focus on solid state lasers during her assignment as an AFRL Laboratory Representative at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Her last assignment was with AFRL at Kirtland AFB as the Solid State Laser Branch Chief. Her role as a part of the HEL JTO team is to monitor current technology projects and help define new technology development programs such as the JTO's Predictive Avoidance and Airspace Deconfliction effort. In addition, she has recently begun work on inernational agreements, helping the JTO craft multi-service "purple" agreements to facilitate international collaboration. Course 7. Transitioning DE Technology to the Warfighter Classification: Unclassified, Public Release Instructor: Bill Decker, Defense Acquisition University Duration: Half-day course, starts at 1300 CEUs awarded: 0.35 Course Description: The DE community has attempted to transition HEL and HPM systems to the warfighter several times in the past two decades, with no success to date. This course will focus on the shortcomings of our efforts to work the requirements, budget and political processes to have a broadly endorsed DE program of record. Topics include:
Intended Audience: Program managers, industry and government leaders, scientists and engineers committed to having our Warfighters benefit from DE technology. Instructor Biography: Mr. Decker is currently the Director, Technology Transition Learning Center of Excellence, Defense Acquisition University and concurrently is a Professor of Engineering Management. His experience includes over 35 years in electro-optics with ten years experience in high energy laser systems, including THEL, ABL, ATL, HELLADS and HELTD, all while employed by Brashear (a division of L-3 Communications) in Pittsburgh, PA. Mr. Decker holds a MS in Physics from the Naval Postgraduate School and a BS in Engineering from Cornell University. He currently consults for Heraeus Quartzglass America in addition to his DAU efforts. Course 8. Testing High Power Radio Frequency Weapon Systems Classification: Unclassified, Limited Distribution C (Restricted to U.S. citizens who are employees of the U.S. Government or its contractors) Instructors: Day/Time: Half-day course, starts at 1300 CEUs awarded: 0.35 Course Description: This course is designed for new high power radio frequency range technician, other range personnel who require knowledge of HPRF systems, and range or contractor managers. The first section of the course covers sufficient HPRF fundamentals to establish a common terminology and provide background. A basic knowledge of RF systems would be useful but is not essential. This course covers the basics of testing HPRF systems to support the development and field testing of such U.S. systems or the verification of the susceptibility/hardness of U.S. weapon systems to HPRF attack. The course addresses the basics of HPRF system testing from the point of view of the sources, instruments, measures, and data acquisition approaches. The availability of these capabilities at the various U.S. military ranges and facilities are addressed, which is the source of the Distribution C characterization of this course. In the course the range capabilities provided by the Directed Energy Test and Evaluation Capability program and Directed Energy Test Science and Technology project are addressed in detail. Additional capabilities acquired by U.S. ranges on their own are addressed in less detail, while foreign HPRF capabilities are addressed the attendee will need to ask questions to obtain additional information. Topics to be covered include:
Intended Audience: This course is designed for new high power radio frequency range technician, other range personnel who require knowledge of HPRF systems, and range or contractor managers. The first section of the course covers sufficient HPRF fundamentals to establish a common terminology and provide background. A basic knowledge of RF systems would be useful but is not essential. Instructor Biography: Mr. Schleher is a retired Air Force officer who spent his entire career as a weather officer serving in a variety of capacities ranging from combat weather to Chief of Space Sciences, his final assignment. Mr. Schleher spent the bulk of his career helping develop US large missile warning and space surveillance radars which led to a retirement job testing such systems for AFOTEC, ATEC and Missile Defense Agency. Working with high power radar systems lead him to start testing the even more powerful HPRF systems, which he has done for the last 20-years. Mr. Schleher was instrumental in acquiring HPRF systems with the Directed Energy Test Capability and is still a Subject Matter Expert with the Directed Energy Test Science and Technology activity as well as the Electronic Warfare Test Science and Technology activity. Jeff has advanced degrees in Ionospheric Physics, Electrical Engineering (Radar), and Environmental Engineering. Mr. Schleher is also President of the Albuquerque chapter of the Association of Old Crows and STEM chairman of the Albuquerque chapter of ITEA.
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