Solid State Laser News

Army awards AV $465 million in first directed energy production contract​

https://insidedefense.com/daily-new...ion-first-directed-energy-production-contract
AeroVironment has won a $465 million contract for the Army’s Enduring High Energy Laser (E-HEL) program, the company announced today, in what marks the first directed energy production contract for the Pentagon. The company expects to deliver the Army “dozens” of its LOCUST X3 counter-drone weapon, which uses a 30-kilowatt laser to shoot down drones. The system can mount to a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and AV is looking into Infantry Squad Vehicle configurations down the road
Click to expand...
 

Army divests future IFPC laser, shifts to Navy-led, larger-aperture weapons​

https://insidedefense.com/daily-new...laser-shifts-navy-led-larger-aperture-weapons
The Army is divesting the future Indirect Fire Protection Capability High Energy Laser program -- two years after stripping $4.8 billion from its planned acquisition profile while insisting the move represented a "try" before "buy" strategy -- to leverage Navy-led development of larger-aperture laser weapons. The Defense Department disclosed the decision in a mid-August budget reprogramming request that seeks to shift $2.9 million from fiscal year 2026 funding for the Army’s Lethality Technology program element
Click to expand...
 
Forest Green said:

Army divests future IFPC laser, shifts to Navy-led, larger-aperture weapons​

https://insidedefense.com/daily-new...laser-shifts-navy-led-larger-aperture-weapons
Click to expand...
This divesting of the IFPC laser program has been planned since March according to the following article from Yahoo News:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/us-army-already-ditching-most-171419644.html , which states:

According to the new CRS report, however, Army officials said the IFPC-HEL contract has since been reduced to a single prototype, which is currently undergoing "final lab testing" at a Lockheed facility in New Jersey ahead of subsequent developmental testing at the service's Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah this summer.

According to officials, that prototype won't end up in the service's hands until at least September, after which it will "be divested as a fielding candidate and used to inform the Joint Laser Warfighting System," according to the CRS report.

In this context, the "Joint Laser Warfighting System" likely means the Pentagon's Joint Laser Weapon System (JLWS), a new collaboration between the Army and U.S. Navy initiated "in support of DoD's overarching Golden Dome for America strategy" to develop a laser weapon to "provide an Air Defense capability against cruise missile threats," according to the Army's fiscal year 2026 budget request.

There is more information about JLWS in the following September 9th Defense Daily article: https://www.defensedaily.com/army-t...-2028-pentagons-critical-tech-lead-says/army/
 
Last edited:
http://abcnews.com/Politics/air-force-secretary-acknowledges-us-weapons-space/story?id=136437923&utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter&user_id=66c4bafe5d78644b3a91d00f

Air Force secretary acknowledges the US has weapons in space​

Troy Meink's statement is seen as a clear warning to China and Russia.

"...It’s unclear what kind of weapons the U.S. has placed in orbit or how long they have been deployed...Space weapons can include cyber weapons or lasers. They can also include satellites built to crash into others..."
 
bobbymike said:
https://www.twz.com/news-features/s...-to-kill-drones-over-cape-canaveral-spaceport
Click to expand...
The article states "Col. Brian Chatman, who commands Space Launch Delta 45, told the publication that the facility is 'bringing on a directed-energy system that can do a kinetic kill against UASs (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) that are coming into the area that are having nefarious intent...This directed-energy system uses lasers to shoot down any drone that flies into restricted areas.'"o_O :rolleyes::D The article later states, "Safety concerns about using directed energy weapons, and especially kinetic ones, to take down drones in the U.S. have been a major factor in why they haven’t been previously used in this role."

Is there some new usage of "kinetic" with respect to directed energy weapons of which I am not aware, or is this article just misusing the term "kinetic"? As far as I am aware, there has always been a mutually exclusive distinction between kinetic kills produced by kinetic energy weapons and kills produced by directed energy weapons.
 
Last edited:
bcredman said:
The article states "Col. Brian Chatman, who commands Space Launch Delta 45, told the publication that the facility is 'bringing on a directed-energy system that can do a kinetic kill against UASs (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) that are coming into the area that are having nefarious intent...This directed-energy system uses lasers to shoot down any drone that flies into restricted areas.'"o_O :rolleyes::D The article later states, "Safety concerns about using directed energy weapons, and especially kinetic ones, to take down drones in the U.S. have been a major factor in why they haven’t been previously used in this role."

Is there some new usage "kinetic" with respect to directed energy weapons of which I am not aware, or is this article just misusing the term "kinetic"? As far as I am aware, there has always been a mutually exclusive distinction between kinetic kills produced by kinetic energy weapons and kills produced by directed energy weapons.
Click to expand...
Well I guess photons move and do have momentum despite no mass according to physicists but mostly it's a misuse. The real danger would be using actual kinetic weapons, where projectiles that miss and/or debris from air-bursts can continue downrange and land who knows where.
 
Forest Green said:
Well I guess photons move and do have momentum despite no mass according to physicists but mostly it's a misuse. The real danger would be using actual kinetic weapons, where projectiles that miss and/or debris from air-bursts can continue downrange and land who knows where.
Click to expand...
True, the energy of the photon is its kinetic energy since it has no rest mass. However, I agree that it's mostly a misuse.

In relativity, an object's total energy is E = K + m_0*c^2, where K = kinetic energy, m_0 = rest mass and c = the speed of light in vacuum.

For a photon, m_0 = 0, so the total energy E = K, the kinetic energy. For a photon that energy is E = K = h*c/lambda, where h = Planck's constant and lambda = the photon's wavelength.

For a 50 kW laser as mentioned in the article, the photons' kinetic energy in a 1 second dwell time is 5E4 J/s * 1 s = 5E4 J
= 50 kJ.

Let's compare that to the kinetic energy of a the tungsten penetrator of the Phalanx Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) Mk 149 Armor-Piercing Discarding Sabot (APDS) with a mass of m = 70 g at a velocity of v = 1113 m/s, which has a kinetic energy of K = 0.5*m*v^2 = 0.5*0.07 kg*(1113 m/s)^2 = 4.336E4 kg*(m/s)^2 = 43.36 kJ. The CIWS fires those rounds a 75 rounds per second, so it could deliver 43.36 kJ * 75 rounds/s * 1 s = 3252 kJ in 1 second = 3.25 MJ in 1 s, which is 65 times more kinetic energy than delivered by the 50 kW laser in 1 s.

Also, the kinetic kill rounds usually destroy the target by tearing through the target and sending shock waves throughout the target, whereas the currently fielded continuous wave laser weapons rely on thermal energy transfer to overheat the target resulting in melting, burning and/or thermal failure of target components and/or structures.
 
Last edited:
I think in this case , the Colonel's using 'kinetic kill' as a synonym for 'hard kill' , as opposed to 'soft kill' . . .

cheers ,
Robin .
 
robunos said:
I think in this case , the Colonel's using 'kinetic kill' as a synonym for 'hard kill' , as opposed to 'soft kill' . . .

cheers ,
Robin .
Click to expand...
Robin,

Thanks. I think you are probably correct and that would make sense of the statements in the article. However, that still constitutes a misuse of the term 'kinetic kill' since it is not synonymous with 'hard kill' in common usage.
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom