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This Defense Intelligence Reference Document from the Defense Intelligence Agency, dated 1 November 2010, was produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It describes nanosatellite technologies and proposes launching nanosats into orbit with laser Lightcraft propulsion. It also covers a weapon mission selection study and multi-megawatt laser options. The author recommends that the Department of Defense and NASA bring Lightcraft R&D back to the United States and restart the X-50LR flight demonstration program.
“Mission Control”8 pages
UNCLASSIFIED//F&~ 8FFI8IAL H!H!! 8HLY SUMMARY OF EMERGENT HIGH-POWER SOLID-STATE AND FREE- ELECTRON LASER TECHNOLOGIES Bulk Slab Solid-State Laser Under the auspices of the Joint High Power Solid-State Laser (JHPSSL) program, Northrop Grumman broke the all-important 100 kW beam power threshold in early 2009 by firing a 7-amplifier chain bulk slab solid-state laser (BSSSL) that produced a beam output power of almost 106 kW (see Figure 19). Each amplifier chain is assembled with several high-gain power modules. The laser operated for more than five minutes, achieved electro-optical efficiency of 19.3%, and reached full power in less than 0.6 seconds with a beam quality of better than 3.0, Whereas the test demonstration saw five minutes of continuous operation for the laser, altogether the system has been operated at above 100 kW beam power for a total duration of more than 85 minutes. Adding an eight amplifier chain that the system was designed for will increase the beam power to 120 kW. Figure 19. Northrop Grumman's Joint High Power Bulk Slab Solid·State Laser (courtesy of the Directed Energy Professional Society). Even though 100 kW beam power has long been the proof-of-principle sought for weapons-class lasers, it should be noted that many militarily useful effects can be 48 UNCLASSIFIED/ ,'f811. 8ffll!l,tct 1!191! 9HL I
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 77 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.