The Office of Naval Research (ONR)
continues to seek industry proposals to develop an affordable solid-state laser
weapon prototype for Navy ships, part of a broad agency announcement published
Aug. 14.
“We are in the process of developing a
laser weapon prototype for the naval surface fleet to counter small unmanned
aerial vehicles and small boat threats,” said Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm.
Matthew Klunder.
ONR hosted an industry day in May to
provide the research and development community with information about its
Solid-State Laser Technology Maturation (SSL-TM) program. Managers incorporated
feedback into the announcement, which solicits industry’s investment in the
program on a number of levels, from subcomponents to systems design.
“We’re looking for an open systems
solution to this warfighting capability because we believe it’s cost effective
and can provide the best value to the government,” said Peter Morrison, ONR
program officer.
The SSL-TM program builds upon ONR’s
directed-energy developments in kilowatt-scale lasers. Among the programs, the
Maritime Laser Demonstration developed a proof-of-concept technology that was
tested at sea in 2011 aboard a decommissioned Navy ship.
The demonstrator was able to disable a
small boat target. (Click here to watch a video.)
During the first week of August off the
California coast the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), ONR and Navy Air and
Missile Defense Command (NAMDC) sponsored a series of successful laser weapon
concept development tests aboard a U.S. Navy destroyer. The Navy intends to use
the technical data collected from this test to inform potential development of
a Navy laser weapon system.
All of these efforts could help the
Department of the Navy become the first of the armed forces to deploy
cost-effective, high-energy laser weapons.
Inventors? I say “Challenge accepted”. Let’s do this!
By Grace Jean, Office of Naval Research
Information for this story provided by
the Office Of Naval Research
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment