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October 31, 2019 | International, Aerospace
Steve Trimble
As the U.S. Air Force comes within weeks of the first operational laser weapons, the Defense Department is hatching new concepts to address the power and thermal management limits of the state-of-the-art in the directed energy field.
In a largely secret dress rehearsal staged last week at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, the Air Force performed another round of tests of the deploying Raytheon High Energy Laser Weapon System (HEL-WS), as well as other directed energy options, such as the Air Force Research Laboratory's Tactical High Power Microwave Operational Responder (THOR), says Kelly Hammett, director of AFRL's Directed Energy Directorate.
“All I can say is there were multiple systems. From my reading of the reports, it looked like a very successful exercise,” says Hammett, who addressed the Association of Old Crows annual symposium Oct. 29.
The Fort Sill experiment was intended to put the weapons through their paces in a realistic operational environment. AFRL's Strategic Development, Planning and Experimentation (SDPE, which, despite its spelling, is pronounced “Speedy”) office called on the HEL-WS and THOR to engage swarms of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The experiments also demonstrated new diagnostic tools, allowing AFRL testers to understand the atmosphere's effect on energy propagation in real time.
SDPE awarded Raytheon a contract in August to deliver a “handful” of systems to the Air Force for a one-year deployment scheduled to conclude in November 2020. The HEL-WS will be used to defend Air Force bases from attacks by swarming, small UAS and cruise missiles, Hammett says. The Air Force is not releasing the location of the deployed sites for the HEL-WS.
AFRL also is grooming THOR for an operational debut. Instead of blasting a UAS with a high-energy optical beam, THOR sends powerful pulses of radio frequency energy at a target to disable its electronics. Hammett describes THOR as a second-generation directed energy weapon. It is designed to be rugged for operational duty and compact enough to be transported inside a single container loaded into a Lockheed Martin C-130. Upon unloading from the aircraft, THOR can be activated within a couple hours, or broken down and moved within the same period, he says.
Despite decades of basic research on directed energy systems, such operational capabilities have evolved fairly rapidly. The Air Force finally consolidated its strategy for developing directed energy weapons in the 2017 flight plan, Hemmett said. The document narrowed a once-fragmented research organization that attempted to address too many missions.
“Directed energy zealots like myself have been blamed, rightly so, of saying directed energy can do almost anything you want it to do. And we pursued multiple applications to the effect that we were diffusing some of our efforts,” he says.
The 2017 flight plan selected three initial use cases: Air base defense, precision strike and self-protect.
The HEL-WS and THOR are addressing the first mission. The Joint Navy-Air Force High Power Electromagnetic Non-Kinetic Strike (Hijenks) program is developing a missile to address the precision strike requirement, as a follow-on to the Counter-electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project (Champ) that concluded five years ago. In the long-term, AFRL also plans to demonstrate the Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (Shield), a podded defensive weapon for aircraft.
Although such technology has come far, researchers are still grappling with fundamental issues to make them practical. Namely, the power generation and thermal management requirement for high-energy lasers and high-power microwaves remains a challenge.
“If you're willing to have very limited duty-cycle, very limited magazine, the power and thermal management aren't very challenging,” Hemmett says. “Of course, that's not what we want from directed energy weapons. We want deep magazines. We want to be able to handle wave attacks as favorably or more favorably that kinetic weapons.”
The “rule of thumb” for a high-energy laser is an efficiency of about one-third, meaning a 300-kW generator is necessary to create a 100-kW laser beam, resulting in 200 kW of waste heat that must be dealt with in some way, says Frank Peterkin, a senior technologist on directed energy for the U.S. Navy who spoke at the same event. On Navy ships, that puts the laser in competition with the electronic warfare and radar subsystems for power and thermal management loads, he adds.
“The challenge for the directed energy community is we don't really own the solution,” Peterkin says. “It does need to be a more holistic solution for the Navy. We are a customer, but we're not driving the solution, per se.”
Although directed energy researchers cannot design the power grids for bases, ships and aircraft, they can help the requirement in other ways, says Lawrence Grimes, director of the Directed Energy Joint Transition Office within the Defense, Research and Engineering directorate of the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
The development of special amplifier diodes for fiber optic lasers are breaking the “rule of thumb” for high-energy systems, Grimes says. “They actually operate at higher temperatures and higher efficiency, so they can reduce the requirement necessary for the prime power and thermal management, and we're not throwing away 200 kW.”
Other Defense Department organizations are pursuing more ambitious options. The Strategic Capabilities Office is selecting suppliers to demonstrate small, 10 MW-size nuclear reactors, as a power generation option for directed energy weapons at austere forward operating bases.
Meanwhile, AFRL also is considering space-based power generation. Under the Space Solar Power Incremental Demonstrations and Research program, AFRL will investigate using high-efficiency solar cells on a spacecraft to absorb the solar energy. The spacecraft then would convert the solar energy into a radio frequency transmission and beam it to a base to supply energy. AFRL has awarded Northrop Grumman a $100 million contract to begin developing the technology.
If those seem like long-term options, the Air Force is not immediately concerned. The HEL-WS and THOR are designed to use “wall-plug” power or the military's standard electric generators, Hammett says.
https://aviationweek.com/defense/era-laser-weapons-dawns-tech-challenges-remain
 
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					February 15, 2021 | International, Naval
Like many navies around the world, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) is making use of the most modern technological advancements in the design and planning of its forthcoming 15 Canadian Surface Combatants (CSC) – a single class of multi-role ships that will form the backbone of Canada's combat sea power. Royal Canadian Navy press release Life onboard the new CSC will be exciting for RCN sailors, as these ships will embrace leading edge technology and improved habitability, and are designed to take them well into the latter half of the 21st Century. How do technological advancements impact operations onboard the ship? Well for starters, a sailor will be able to view on one computer terminal or platform various streams of digital content/information originating from different sources – a process called convergence. Convergence will allow any operations room or bridge terminal to show video or data feeds from any sensor, weapon, or software support system. Not only does this mean that leadership teams will have real-time warfare and platform data at their fingertips from various onboard locations, it also means that the physical space and power required to run multiple terminals will be reduced. Until recently, electronic systems onboard a warship such as the weapons and sensor systems, took up space, and lots of it. However, with the application of widespread digitization and use of solid state electronics onboard the CSC, dedicated space requirements have been considerably reduced, while the capability and flexibility of these systems have been increased. By capitalizing on miniaturization and digitization, much of this new-found square footage can be freed up to improve working and habitability conditions, including making accommodations and personal living spaces better for the crew. Multi-function equipment will be incorporated wherever practical onboard the CSC. For example, a single digital beam-forming radar can replace multiple traditional radars, software-defined radios can be setup to support different communications requirements on the fly, and programmable multi-purpose weapons will be able to engage more than one kind of target, while being controlled from a common vertical launcher. Multi-functionality even extends to the CSC's modular mission bay: a reconfigurable space able to accommodate and integrate any container payload imaginable. When taken as a whole, the technology advancements that will be incorporated into the CSC means the single-class, single variant choice, coupled with the inherent and multi-role capabilities that it will bring, will serve Canadian interests for decades into the future. The CSC is the right choice for the RCN and the right choice for Canada. Canada's defence policy, “Strong, Secure, Engaged” (SSE), has committed to investing in 15 Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) ships. In February 2019, the Government of Canada confirmed that the bid from Lockheed Martin Canada has been selected for the design and design team for the Canadian Surface Combatants. Irving Shipbuilding Inc., the project's prime contractor, awarded a sub-contract to Lockheed Martin Canada for work to finalize the design. The winning bid is based on the BAE Systems Type 26 Global Combat Ship. These ships will be Canada's major surface component of maritime combat power. With its effective warfare capability and versatility, it can be deployed rapidly anywhere in the world, either independently or as part of a Canadian or international coalition. The CSC will be able to deploy for many months with a limited logistic footprint. The CSC will be able to conduct a broad range of tasks, including: Delivering decisive combat power at sea; Supporting the Canadian Armed Forces, and Canada's Allies ashore; Conducting counter-piracy, counter-terrorism, interdiction and embargo operations for medium intensity operations; and Delivering humanitarian aid, search and rescue, law and sovereignty enforcement for regional engagements. The ship's capability suite includes: Four integrated management systems, one each for the combat system, platform systems, bridge and navigation systems and a cyber-defence system; A digital beam forming Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar (the SPY-7 by Lockheed Martin) and solid state illuminator capability; The USN Cooperative Engagement Capability system; A vertically launched missile system supporting long, short and close-in missile defence, long-range precision naval fires support and anti-ship engagements; A 127mm main gun system and dual 30mm gun mounts; A complete electronic warfare and countermeasures suite; A fully integrated underwater warfare system with bow-mounted sonar, towed low frequency active and passive sonar, lightweight torpedoes and decoys; Fully integrated communications, networking and data link capabilities; and A CH-148 Cyclone multi-role helicopter, multi-role boats and facilities for embarking remotely piloted systems. CSC Specifications: Length: 151.4 metres Beam: 20.75 metres Speed: 27 knots Displacement: 7,800 tonnes Navigational Draught: ~8m Range: 7000 nautical miles Class: 15 ships Accommodations: ~204 https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2021/02/technological-advancements-make-the-csc-the-right-choice-for-the-royal-canadian-navy/