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Defence Secretary saying Dragonfire entry into service has been accelerated from 2032 to 2027 but they would look to see whether they could rush it into service in Ukraine. The new technology development approach is to not wait until kit is 99.9% effective but to get it into the field when its about 70% done and continue to improve it in service.

 
It appears US Army has its doubts on lasers and wants realistic testing to prove they will actually work operationally in practice not just in the lab.

 
That was the Lockheed Martin program to scale a 100kw laser to 300kw wasnt it? Though that program was only $700m to procure four 300kw lasers and $4bn on microwave weapons, if they have axed $4bn from the budget it must be the microwave part of it being axed.
 
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That was the Lockheed Martin program to scale a 100kw laser to 300kw wasnt it? Though that program was only $700m to procure four 300kw lasers and $4bn on microwave weapons, if they have axed $4bn from the budget it must be the microwave part of it being axed.
I find that hard to believe as insidedefense.com write up explicity refers to "High Energy Lasers" and by far the majority of funding has always been devoted to lasers and not microwaves. Does anyone have ref to the figures quoted by insidedefense.com?

PS If remember correctly did not General Atomics and Boeing as well as Dynamics and Lockheed win contracts for higher powered lasers plus funding to develop an ultrashort pulse laser (USPL) system.
 
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I find that hard to believe as insidedefense.com write up explicity refers to "High Energy Lasers" and by far the majority of funding has always been devoted to lasers and not microwaves. Does anyone have ref to the figures quoted by insidedefense.com?

PS If remember correctly did not General Dynamics and Boeing as well as Dynamics and Lockheed win contracts for higher powered lasers plus funding to develop an ultrashort pulse laser (USPL) system.

I assume it will be a series of pulses, because 1TW for 200fs is only 0.2J.

 
My simplistic view is if you have a 300kW electric motor and the laser is 40% efficient ??? in converting the electric power into laser beam power that means you have to dissipate the remaining 180kW as heat, not simple, so perhaps why below regarded as so important.

 
My simplistic view is if you have a 300kW electric motor and the laser is 40% efficient ??? in converting the electric power into laser beam power that means you have to dissipate the remaining 180kW as heat, not simple, so perhaps why below regarded as so important.

Interesting:

“One of the companies that is receiving [AFPIT funding] is a small company that is building a phase modulator that will decrease the amount of cooling required for fiber lasers by 50%,” Shyu said on April 17. “Think about that.”
 

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