February 21, 2023 | International, Other Defence
DoD small business chief presses to revive innovation fund
The number of small business participating in the American defense-industrial base declined by more than 40% in the past decade.
December 10, 2020 | International, Land
General Atomics’ New Compact, High-Powered Lasers
GA is building a prototype 300-kW missile defense laser for the Pentagon and a 250-kW airborne version with Boeing.
By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR.on December 09, 2020 at 3:04 PM
WASHINGTON: General Atomics is so confident in a unique technology they say solves the heat and weight problems found in rival laser designs that they're making it the core of two distinctly different projects.
The Office of the Secretary of Defense is funding General Atomics and two competitors to build experimental lasers able to blast out some 300 kilowatts of power – enough to burn cruise missiles out of the sky. This project is about scaling up laser power output and testing alternative technologies for the services to pick up for separate follow-on programs.
Meanwhile, Boeing and General Atomics are jointly developing a smaller laser weapon – starting at about 100 kilowatts but capable of growing to 250 kW. Unlike OSD's, this 250 kW weapon is being built at the companies' own expense, essentially on spec. (The technical term is IRAD, Independent Research And Development).
Like OSD, Boeing and GA are hoping to demonstrate technology that'll be picked up by the services for a wide range of ground- and ship-based applications: The company says they're targeting the Army's Stryker-mounted M-SHORAD and its larger truck-borne IFPC, as well as Navy shipborne models. But for the pilot project, they've set themselves a very specific and demanding technical challenge: make their laser fit aboard an airplane – and make it fire accurately from that plane in flight. (Breaking D readers will remember the Airborne Laser, a huge chemical laser on a modified 747, as well as plans to arm the Next Generation Air Dominance planes with lasers.)
Call in the “New York, New York” school of engineering: If you can make your laser work on a plane, you can make it work anywhere.
“The idea is, if we can do it for an aircraft, then it truly could be able to go on any ground or sea platform,” said GA's VP for lasers, Michael Perry. “An aircraft...has the largest constraints on size, weight, and power.”
Now, that doesn't mean getting lasers to work on ships or Army vehicles is easy. In some ways, surface platforms have a harder time: Their lasers have to penetrate the thickest, most moisture-laden layers of the atmosphere. And, Perry told me, while an aircraft in flight is constantly vibrating, you can account for that with sophisticated beam control software and high-quality aiming mirrors: That tech is tricky to build, but not bulky to install once you've built it. By contrast, a laser installed on a surface platform has to handle sudden, massive jolts as the warship crashes over a wave or the truck drives over a ditch, and that requires shock absorption systems, which are bulky and heavy.
(While General Atomics and Boeing haven't said what aircraft they're planning to test the laser aboard, given the fact that Perry thinks extensive shock-absorption will be unnecessary, that suggests it isn't going to be a fighter jet or anything that makes violent high-gee maneuvers. That's in line with Air Force Special Operations Command's longstanding interest in putting a laser cannon aboard their AC-130 turboprop gunship).
So GA's major focus in this project seems to be proving how compact their technology can be. Smaller size is a big advantage of the GA approach, Perry said, which they refer to as scalable distributed gain.
Fibers, Slabs, & Distributed Gain
What is a “distributed gain” laser, anyway? In the Wild West days of Reagan's Star Wars program, the Pentagon looked into lots of ways of powering lasers, from literal nuclear explosions – an idea called Project Excalibur – to massive vats of toxic chemicals, like the ones that filled the converted Boeing 747 that became the Airborne Laser. The real progress, however, has come with so-called solid state lasers: They pump light into a crystalline “gain medium,” which then amplifies the power of that light (hence “gain”), until it's released as a laser beam. But there are two main ways of building a solid-state laser:
- A slab laser, as its name implies, uses a single big chunk of crystal as the gain medium. This gives you a single coherent beam of laser light. The problem with slab lasers is heat buildup. The bigger you make the slab, the further the distance from its core to the edges, which means it takes longer to disperse waste heat, which can build up and damage the system. (You may recognize this from high school physics as a manifestation of the square-cube law). So slab lasers tend to require cooling systems, which are bulky and heavy.
- A fiber laser, by contrast, uses lots and lots of fiber-optic cables as gain media. Each individual fiber is very thin, and you can leave space between them, so it's easy for them to disperse waste heat. The problem with fiber lasers is the act of combining the beams. The bigger you make the laser, the more fibers you need – a 250-kW weapon might take 100 fibers, Perry said – and each fiber produces its own, weak laser beam, which you then have to combine into a single, powerful beam. Beam combination systems tend to be expensive and complex, not to mention (surprise!) bulky and heavy.
General Atomics' distributed gain laser tries to strike a balance. Instead of a single big slab, you have several smaller slabs, each of them thin enough to disperse heat quickly. But instead of each of these slabs producing its own beam in parallel, which you then have to combine, you connect them in serial. The initial light source goes into the first slab, which magnifies it and shoots it into the second slab, which magnifies it still more. In theory you could have a third slab as well, even a fourth and fifth, though that's not what GA is building here. (They don't have to be lined up end to end, because you can use high-quality mirrors to bounce the light around a corner).
“It is a series of slabs,” Perry told me. “The single beam passes through them all, as opposed to being separate lasers.”
The advantage of distributed gain for high-power lasers is that you need neither the extensive cooling systems of a slab laser, nor the exquisite beam-combination systems of a fiber laser. “It's pretty compact,” Perry told me. “If you came out to see if you would be surprised at how short it is.”
That said, there is a minimum length for a given amount of power output. That's why General Atomics couldn't fit the same 300-kW weapon they're building for OSD onto Boeing's aircraft (again, they're not saying what that aircraft is), which is why that version had to be scaled down to 250 inches.
“The problem we have is, the 300-kw architecture is about 18 inches longer then the 250,” Perry said ruefully. “Believe it or not, as painful as it is and as frustrated as I am, I cannot eke out another 18 inches of length... The platform can't even give us another 12 inches.”
It may be frustrating for Perry and his team to build two different versions of their lasers, rather than build two identical copies of the same thing – but the exercise could help prove to potential customers just how adaptable the basic design can be.
https://breakingdefense.com/2020/12/general-atomics-new-compact-high-powered-lasers/
On the same subject
-
-
November 2, 2024 | International, C4ISR, Security
Microsoft Warns of Chinese Botnet Exploiting Router Flaws for Credential Theft
Chinese botnet Storm-0940 exploits routers, targets Microsoft users with covert password spray attacks.
-
August 27, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - August 26, 2019
ARMY AECOM International Inc., Neu-Isenburg, Germany (W912GB-19-D-0028); Atkins-UC JV,* Alexandria, Virginia (W912GB-19-D-0029); Exp-Onyx JV LLP, Chicago, Illinois (W912GB-19-D-0030); HDR Engineering Inc., Colorado Springs, Colorado (W912GB-19-D-0031); Jacobs Government Services Co., Arlington, Virginia (W912GB-19-D-0032); Louis Berger U.S. Inc., Washington, District of Columbia (W912GB-19-D-0033); Michael Baker-Cardno JV, Moon Township, Pennsylvania (W912GB-19-D-0034); Parsons Government Services Inc., San Antonio, Texas (W912GB-19-D-0035); and Woolpert-Black & Veatch JV, Beavercreek, Ohio (W912GB-19-D-0036), will compete for each order of the $94,500,000 firm-fixed-price contract for architect, engineering, master planning and design services. Bids were solicited via the internet with 11 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 25, 2024. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wiesbaden, Germany, is the contracting activity. QED Systems LLC, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, was awarded a $9,616,948 modification (P00041) to contract W15P7T-14-C-C012 for program management, engineering, logistics, business, administrative, operations and security services. Work will be performed in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 26, 2020. Fiscal 2019 Foreign Military Sales; and operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $9,616,948 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE UES Inc., Dayton, Ohio, has been awarded a $90,300,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for molecular assessment sensing technologies. This contract provides for basic, applied and advanced technology development research, as well as development and demonstration of discovery of molecular signatures of Airman performance and the operational environment and sensing of these signatures in Air Force relevant scenarios. Work will be performed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and is expected to be complete by Aug. 31, 2027. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and two offers were received. Fiscal 2018 and 2019 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $2,222,857 on three task orders are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8650-19-D-6109). PAE Aviation and Technical Services LLC, Marlton, New Jersey, has been awarded a $19,156,738 modification to previously awarded contract FA4890-15-C0018 for the Aerial Targets Program. The contract modification provides for the exercise of an option for an additional year of service under the multiple year contract, which directly supports live-fire weapons system testing and enables the 53rd Weapons Evaluation Group to perform developmental and operational weapons testing for all air-to-air missiles for the F-15, F-16, F-22, and F-35 aircraft. Work will be performed at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida; and Holloman AFB, New Mexico, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2020. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds are being used and no funds were obligated at the time of award. The Air Combat Command, Acquisition Management and Integration Center, Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, is the contracting activity. Sonalysts Inc., Waterford, Connecticut, is being awarded a $14,516,477 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification (P00008) to the previously awarded contract FA8806-19-C-0002 for Standard Space Trainer Mission-Specific Vendor Plug-in (MSVPs) for the Upward Early Warning Radar. The contract modification provides for future development of MSVPs. Work will be performed at Waterford, Connecticut, and is expected to be completed by July 31, 2022. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $7,300,000 are being obligate at time of award. Total cumulative face value of the contract is $35,209,586.00. The Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, El Segundo, California, is the contracting activity. NAVY Raytheon Co., El Segundo, California, is awarded $74,091,217 for cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee modification P00055 to a previously awarded contract (N00019-16-C-0002). This modification procures pre-operational support for the Next Generation Jammer-Mid Band pod through the completion of the engineering, manufacturing and development (EMD) phase as well as development, test and evaluation (DT&E) activities. Procured support includes organizational-level maintenance, repair, supply chain management, and material support for equipment delivered under the EMD contract, and associated peculiar support equipment/test, measurement, and diagnostic equipment to support DT&E. Work will be performed in Forest, Mississippi (39%); Dallas, Texas (35%); El Segundo, California (16%); Andover, Massachusetts (8%); and Fort Wayne, Indiana (2%), and is expected to be completed in December 2021. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $3,228,948 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. General Dynamics Missions Systems Inc., McLeansville, North Carolina, is awarded a $44,595,146 cost-plus-incentive-fee modification to previously-awarded contract N61331-11-C-0017 for low-rate initial production of the Surface Mine Countermeasure Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (SMCM UUV), also known as Knifefish. The Knifefish program is an ongoing effort to provide a UUV that detects and classifies undersea volume, bottom and buried mines in high-clutter environments. The Knifefish system is part of the Littoral Combat Ship Mine Countermeasures Mission Package and can also be deployed from vessels of opportunity. The low-rate initial production effort will provide the initial systems for the Navy to test and operate. Work will be performed in Quincy, Massachusetts (35%); Taunton, Massachusetts (23%); Braintree, Massachusetts (19%); a location to be determined (15%); McLeansville, North Carolina (6%); Reston, Virginia (1%); and Ann Arbor, Michigan (1%), and is expected to be completed by August 2021. Fiscal 2018 and 2019 other procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $44,595,146 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. Physical Optics Corp.,* Torrance, California, is awarded $27,230,891 for modification P00012 to previously awarded firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00019-17-C-0078) in support of F/A-18E/F and EA-18G aircraft for the Navy and the government of Kuwait. This modification exercises an option for data transfer unit production support, 160 data transfer units, 160 ground data transfer units, 14 maintenance access cables, 600 mission data transfer devices, and 459 maintenance data transfer devices in support of the Navy's F/A-18 E/F and EA-18G program. In addition, this option exercise procures 37 data transfer units, 35 ground data transfer units, 11 maintenance access cables, 122 mission data transfer devices, and 90 maintenance data transfer devices in support of the Kuwait Super Hornet program. Work will be performed in Torrance, California, and is expected to be completed in August 2021. Fiscal 2018 and 2019 aircraft procurement (Navy); and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) funds will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This modification combines purchases for the Navy ($22,334,109; 82%); and the government of Kuwait ($4,896,782; 18%) under the FMS Program. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Airborne Tactical Advantage Co. LLC, Newport News, Virginia, is awarded $13,495,999 for modification P00020 to previously awarded firm-fixed-price, cost-reimbursable indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract N00019-15-D-0026. This modification provides for contractor-owned and operated Type IV supersonic aircraft for airborne threat simulation capabilities in support of the Contracted Air Services Program. Work will be performed in Newport News, Virginia (44%); Point Mugu, California (37%); and various locations outside the continental U.S. (19%), and is expected to be completed in May 2020. No funds will be obligated at time of award, funds will be obligated on individual delivery orders as they are issued. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Melbourne, Florida, is awarded $9,938,480 for modification 004502 to a previously issued delivery order 0045 placed against a basic ordering agreement (N00019-15-G-0026). This modification procures eight E-2C compatible AN/APX-122A Mode 5/S interrogators for the government of Japan. Work will be performed in Greenlawn, New York (82%); and Melbourne, Florida (18%), and is expected to be completed in September 2023. Foreign military sales funds in the amount of $9,938,480 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY C.E. Niehoff & Co.,* Evanston, Illinois, has been awarded a maximum $11,806,163 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for engine air conditioner generators. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Illinois, with an Aug. 25, 2024, performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2024 Army working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Warren, Michigan (SPRDL1-19-D-0152). *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/1944232/source/GovDelivery/