Documents / Report
The Defense Intelligence Agency produced this reference document, dated 31 March 2010, under its Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It reviews the state of the art and likely evolution of high-energy laser weapons, including chemical, solid-state, fiber and free-electron lasers, as well as beam control and the history of DoD laser research. It concludes that electrically powered lasers could make megawatt-class weapons practical and that spacecraft laser weapons are conceivable within 20 years. It also recommends ways to protect spacecraft from laser damage.
“Low Earth orbit”2 pages
UNCLASSIFIED/ ,'F811. 8FFll!l*L 1!1!11! t!IIU:!Y f• .. Figure 16. MDA Airborne Laser in a Boeing 747-400F Also in the mid-1990s, the Navy concluded that the DF laser wavelengths would not propagate adequately for use as weapons at-sea and began the development of free- electron laser technology to open more favorable propagation opportunities in the near- infrared wavelength region. To-date, FEL technology has been demonstrated at the 10 kW average power level and Navy-funded scale up continues with an ultimate goal at the MW-class. Currently, all three services are developing solid-state slab and fiber laser technologies to support modest size, near-term, 100 kW-class weapons. These should be capable of engaging short range tactical targets such as UAVs, rockets, artillery, mortars, and swarming boats. The Air Force and the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) installed and are testing a chemical laser weapon system test-bed in a C-130, called the Advance Tactical Laser, to evaluate the utility of a laser addition to the AC-130J gunship (Figure 17). 19 UNCLASSIFIED/ ,'F811. IIFFUiiliR.k I.Iii O•lk¥
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 31 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.