Lockheed Martin has delivered a tactically-relevant electric 300 kW-class laser, its most powerful laser to date, to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering OUSD (R&E). It is scheduled for installation in new laser weapon demonstrators designed to engage a variety of targets.
The 300 kW-class laser was developed as a part of the pentagon’s High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI), an effort by the department to strengthen the directed energy industrial base and improve the quality of laser beams. The new HELSI laser will be used in several demonstration efforts, including the U.S. Army’s Indirect Fires Protection Capability-High Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL) Demonstrator laser weapon system. It is scheduled for laboratory and field testing this year.
Lockheed Martin’s 300 kW-class high-energy laser design and build were enabled by significant investments in directed energy technology and the contributions of the company’s dedicated team in Washington state and Owego, New York. The higher capacity of the 300 kW-class laser allows it to engage a wider variety of larger targets at longer ranges and neutralize them more quickly.
“Lockheed Martin increased the power and efficiency and reduced the weight and volume of continuous-wave high energy lasers, which reduces the risk for future fielding efforts of high power laser weapon systems,” said Rick Cordaro, vice president of Lockheed Martin Advanced Product Solutions.
