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US Army is ready to field two laser weapon systems 50 Kw and 300 Kw DE-MSHORAD IFPC-HEL in 2022
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Dec 19, 2023
According to information published by the USSAA News website on August 4, 2020, U.S. Army is ready to field two types of laser weapon systems in 2022 including a 50-kilowatt laser weapon that will be used to destroy drone and artillery rockets and a 300-kilowatt laser weapon which will be able to shoot down cruise missiles. Read full news at his link https://www.armyrecognition.com/defense_news_august_2020_global_security_army_industry/us_army_is_ready_to_field_two_types_of_laser_weapon_systems_in_2022.html Visit our online defense and security magazine and read more news at: Army Recognition https://www.armyrecognition.com Navy Recognition https://www.navyrecognition.com Air Recognition https://www.airrecognition.com Army Recognition Group Global Defence & Security News Defense & Security News Web TV Online magazine for defence and security industry Worldwide Defense & Security News Marketing and advertising for Defense & Security Industry and Exhibition Email: [email protected]
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According to information published by the USAAA News website on August 4 2020
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US Army is ready to fill two types of laser weapons system in 2022, including 50 kilowatt laser weapons
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that will be used to destroy drones and artillery rockets and 300 kilowatt laser weapons
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which will be able to shot down cruise missiles. During the Air USA Defense Exhibition in Washington, D.C.
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Army Recognition Editor Team made an interview with General Dynamics about the laser weapon system mounted on striker's armoured
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In this video, you will also see an interview from the US Army
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about the AHL-MD 300-kilovatt laser weapon system. I'm Kurt Pesh with General Dynamics Land Systems
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and this is the Stryker Mobile Expeditionary High Energy Laser. system. So there's a number of systems that are shown on this vehicle. There is a target acquisition
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system. There's an electronic warfare system used to scramble signals to UAVs. And essentially
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the laser is the key piece of equipment that we demonstrated on the vehicle last year and we're
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integrating a growth to that system from a two kilowatt to a five kilowatt system
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So inherently the striker is capable of producing about 15 kilowatts worth of power
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And for the missions that we're looking to go demonstrate off at Army installations, we're
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able to have a period of lays time or for the other systems
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The ability to operate those systems over a set amount of time, drop down to a recharge cycle
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and then do it all over again. We built the compact laser weapon system
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This is the component you see there at the top with the beam controller
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We have a beam director on top of the vehicle and we control the laser from that location
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And it's primarily for counter UAS, counter unmanned aerial systems and to destroy those before
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they get close to any kind of platforms. Located out here on the missile range we have the opportunity to fire high lasers against targets that are fired It a great location We got a nice mountain backstop that allows us to do a lot of different things that many other
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test sites that belong to the Department of Defense can't do. For HellmD, what we brought to the table for them is our experience in Indirected Energy
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We've been out here, I've been here on site for around 2nd
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for around 20 years. We've been testing out here. Health staff has been out here since the early 80s
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when it first started propagating out here. So we bring experience and we bring all the assets of the range
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which is the telemetry, the radar. There's many, many things out here
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that are already set up for the missile function that White Sands has
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that can be or is being used for a hellmd that's not available at many of the other test ranges
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The airspace available and the ground space available here at Whistper provides a very suitable location
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where you can close off all the airspace required, all the area required, in order to conduct a safe operation with lasers
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particularly when you're going dynamic against aerial targets where you are potentially propagating the laser at long ranges and open areas where you don't want any other aircraft being around
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You need to be able to have a reliable system to transmit data from the L&D or from any laser system to the other supporting devices such as a radar or GPS
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So providing that interconnectivity is an issue sometimes. especially when you're dealing with networks
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I have been at health staff since 2006, so I've been here for eight years
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I started as a co-op, and then I started full-time as a test engineer in 2008
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Definitely participate in the career fairs at the universities. Wismer has a very good presence at the career fairs there
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That's how I got the position there. I went to the career fair
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Definitely try to take relevant courses obviously have you have the right degree field in mind But the career fair was actually a very good source
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of getting that job opportunity. Well, as far as, and this goes for any customer
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not just hellmd, but you have to be open to any requirements
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that the customer we have. Nothing is off the tables unless you have absolutely
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exhausted all possible options. And you have to be willing to work with the customer
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And sometimes you have to make concessions on both ends. But definitely, you have to be open and you have to be flexible
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which is one of the key things. Flexibility, especially with laser programs, is key
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In order to be able to support the different things that play when it comes to testing with lasers
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it's not just the system itself, but the airspace and also other supporting functions that need to be available
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They have to be flexible to all the, you know, changing requirements and the changing needs of the device in the system
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This iteration, we're doing some tracking missions preparing for some further acquisition
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tests that we're doing with Health Staff and Material Test Director. HelmD is, of course, it's a mobile demonstrator with high-energy lasers
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We're a counter-rocket, counter-mortar, counter-artillery, and then also counter-UAS right now. We've tested all that here with our last couple operational tests at Hellstaff and White Sand
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Yeah, this is an Army, S&T program, science and technology program right now
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It is a demonstrator. It's not a fieldable system yet, but it is truly just a test article right now for the follow-on to potentially a program of record
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Yeah, the Army has committed itself to solid-state lasers, and now that we're away from the chemical lasers
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So solid-state lasers are the future, electric lasers. And we are doing that for the Army now and proofing that out
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that out. Solid state is using strictly electric energy, okay, and then the chemical was used
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to, as it states, a chemical mixture that produces light, and that has been basically phased
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out to some degree now. It's, Army logistically, it just wasn't viable anymore. Clean energy, more
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efficient energy. The electronics are a little more state of the art, and it lends itself
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to reliability for the arm Yeah that was actually one of the first proof of principles for lasers out here White Sands Health Staff and Material Test Director with Flight Safety did a phenomenal job on our operational requirements that we did
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The distances we typically work were about anywhere from 8 kilometers into about 2 kilometers
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Worked very well. It was a Class 2 surrogate UAS, and we had a shoot down with that
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with that and multiple tracking missions as well. We also did some airborne target
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lasing to check our aim spots or aim points and we did about nine operations out
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here on that. Good question. It's basically with the counter ISR is the biggest
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threat right now so that we did do some counter ISR threats and we actually
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worked that very well. We actually killed some ISR systems with the laser program here with HelmD
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And that was out of the extended ranges. So that was with the 10 kilowatt laser
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The Army is supporting the effort that our next acquisition will be a 50 kilowatt laser
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It will be still counter-mortar rockets, artillery, and UAS. So this beam director on HelmD will still suffice
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for that kilowatt rating. And this will be the next phase, if you will
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if you will, for Helmd and the Army. So right now that's where we're going, it's a 50 kilowatt
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Correct. Everything's contained, if you will, in the box or the Connix, if you will, the vehicle right now on the Hemet vehicle
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Right now this is our platform and it'll be, everything will still be there with the main optical bench, the lasers
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itself will be there and utilize the same beam director. Well, keep in mind that Defense Web TV has more than 1,400 videos on its YouTube channel
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