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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.
“The Advance”10 pages
UNCLASSIFIED/ /PIHi: 8ffllil.t.k WE'lii Si'IU Y HEL and Kinetic Weapons offer complementary capabilities Soft/Small/Fast Moving/tactical Missiles & Hardened or E/0 sensors Vehicles Satellites Large Area (Dazzle or Destroy) Cell towers & comm nodes ICBMs Tanks Target Target tagging Radar antennas IRBMs Armored vehicles Types Fire starting Power grids TheaterBMs Bridges Small UAVs Ceramic RF radomes Cruise missiles Buildings Manpads Military UAVs Satellites Groups of people Individual persons Rockets, art111ery & mortars ---------------------------------------------- Laser -- Increasing Laser Power or Increasing Range for Same Effect ---+ Laser Power 1 kW 10 kW Weapon E Effectiveness asy 100 kW Medium "w Difficult Impractical ----------------------------------------------KE Impractical Weapon Effectiveness Medium if stationary if isolated Difficult Easy if stationary if isolated ----------------------------------------------Figure 1. Utility of KE and HEL Weapons ELEMENTS OF AN HEL WEAPON The purpose of an HEL weapon system is to place and maintain the focused laser beam on a target aim point for sufficient time to cause the desired heating effect. To accomplish this, the weapon beam is generated by the laser device, then shaped and relayed to the input of a pointing telescope (Figure 2). Laser beam sensors and steering mirrors are required to maintain the HEL beam centered as it traverses the optical train. The pointing telescope, which typically sits on azimuth and elevation gimbals, then expands the beam to the diameter of its primary mirror and focuses it to the range of the target while an imaging system (which can use a separate telescope or share the transmitting telescope) acquires the target, tracks it, and points the transmitting telescope's beam at the desired aim point. If the HEL beam's propagation path from the weapon to the target includes the earth's atmosphere, it can have a significant deleterious effect. Absorption and scattering of the beam, which reduce its strength at the target, are caused by molecular constituents of the atmosphere and aerosols such as haze or dust. Additionally, atmospheric turbulence spreads the focused spot and further reduces its effectiveness. All of these factors must be taken into account when designing a laser weapon. 2 UNCLASSIFIED/ ,'f811. 8ffllilAI! l!llili a,112~·
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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.