High Energy Laser Advanced Development
This program is part of an overall Department of War strategy in Joint directed energy advanced technology development. Efforts within this program will focus on scaling the capability of directed energy weapon systems to reach operationally effective levels applicable to broad mission areas across the Department of War. Additionally, efforts will pursue improvements in common directed energy system components to enable scalable architectures and increased lethality. These efforts complement, and will be closely coordinated with, other Department efforts directed at specific Service and Agency missions. This program builds upon other investments in directed energy advanced technology development by the Services and Agencies to eliminate duplication. In support, efforts in this project have been coordinated with the Department of War Directed Energy and Non-Lethal Weapons Science and Technology Community of Interest. This effort is executed via the Directed Energy Technology Maturation program within the Joint Directed Energy Transition Office (JDETO). The Directed Energy Technology Maturation program enables High Energy Laser and High Power Microwave Technology maturation thru (1) Directed Energy system prototype and scaling initiatives (2) advanced technology development in high energy lasers and high power microwaves that support prototype-level integration, (3) proof of concept tech demonstrations in a laboratory or field environment with Joint-international participation, (4) advanced prototypes in support of demonstrating mission-driven lethality and survivability and (5) test and evaluation in a relevant field environment with Joint-international participation.
FY2025 accomplishments - Directed Energy Sources: 500 kilowatt and 1 megawatt class high energy laser development efforts under the High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative will continue with their prototype build phase in support of multiple milestones. - Beam Control and Propagation: Validate the use of beam control technology to include acquisition and course track, fine track and aimpoint maintenance, wavefront compensation, and high power optical components in relevant environments to understand effectiveness and identify shortfalls that require additional research focus. - Lethality and Vulnerability: Static and dynamic lethality testing of representative and/or actual targets will be conducted using existing…
High Energy Laser Technology Maturation: Continue beam control maturation to include assessment efforts of counter missile, airborne for mid-term tactical missions, and meter-class beam directors for long-term strategic missions. Continue the development of higher order adaptive optics, advanced beam director common interfaces, and HEL…
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