\u201cThe Air Force and the Army both, we have ongoing efforts to build counter-UAS systems,\u201d Craig Robin, head of directed energy at the Army Rapid Capabilities & Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO), explained during a webinar sponsored by Defence iQ. \u201cUAVs are in the threat set \u2026 they\u2019re just not the only threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is looking to the future of DE weapons in a new paper released last Friday, Directed Energy Futures 2060.<\/a> It sees promise in a broad array of future missions from AI-driven laser systems to enable machine-speed drone kill chains to space-based missile defenses (a concept that has gone in and out of fashion for decades).<\/p>\n Most eyebrow raising is AFRL\u2019s prediction that DEW could be used by 2060 to create \u201cforce fields\u201d to protect bases by repelling incoming drones and munitions \u2014 or even eventually improved to develop a kind of \u201cnuclear umbrella.\u201d<\/p>\n Different Targets, Different Requirements<\/strong><\/p>\n DoD tapped the Army to lead the the Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aerial Systems Office (JCO) <\/a>last January. It is exploring numerous technological approaches to that small UAS mission, from metal \u2018nets\u2019 that tangle rotors to low-power lasers (in the 10-20 kilowatt range, Robin said.)<\/p>\n Current DE systems under development for countering unmanned aerial systems (c-UAS) have ranges \u201cnearing 1 kilometer,\u201d AFRL\u2019s study explains, as opposed to other types of counter-UAS capabilities \u2014 such as net guns and shotguns \u2014 which are only effective at \u201c10s of meters ranges.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2020, it is possible to build a 100\u2019s of kilowatt class laser weapon system that can create destructive effects at tactically relevant distances, which if deployed could enable certain offensive and defensive operations. By tactically relevant distances in this instance, we mean up to a few kilometers,\u201d the AFRL study added.<\/p>\n Jirjis said a continuing challenge for laser weapons, however, \u201cis being able to hit multiple threats at one time.\u201d (Hence, Air Force and Army interest in high-powered microwaves.)<\/p>\n \u201cYou can do that by linearly prosecuting them one at a time, you can get that maybe more spectrally trying to hit at multiple lasers,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that\u2019s where some of the capabilities may also go, with \u2026 technologies to be able to actually meet some of those challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond c-UAS, where much of DoD\u2019s focus is today, other targets \u2014 for example, artillery or cruise missiles \u2014 require developers to look at different designs and power levels as they go forward, Robin said. \u201cShooting artillery is harder than shooting UAVs; \u2026 shooting a cruise missile is harder than shooting a UAV.\u201d<\/p>\n Targeting missiles, for example, would require much longer-range capabilities. Longer range requirements also mean higher power requirements. For airborne systems, atmospheric turbulence and beam dispersion also become problems \u2014 whether the target is ballistic missiles or air-to-air missiles.<\/p>\n Field Experiments<\/strong><\/p>\n The Air Force thus is deeply involved in a \u201cdirected energy experimentation campaign,\u201d said Michael Jirjis, former head of that campaign, but now Air Force Life Cycle Management Center\u2019s Architecture & Integration Directorate lead for base defense. He explained that the concept is to \u201cvery quickly\u201d test DE systems first in the US with operators, and then rapidly deploy them overseas on a \u201cstaggered\u201d basis. A number of laser systems, he added, are \u201ccurrently going on a 12-months overseas field assessment.\u201d<\/p>\n In February, for example, the service\u2019s Directed Energy Combined Test Force (DE-CTF), inaugurated in 2018 at Kirtland AFB in New Mexico, tested the High Energy Laser Weapon System 2<\/a> \u2014 also known as HELWS2 or H2. HELWS2 is a c-UAS directed energy weapon developed by Raytheon Intelligence & Space. (The first iteration of HELWS was certified for combat ops last September.)<\/p>\n \u201cH2 was tested as part of a directed energy experiment that began in the spring of 2020 and was managed by the Strategic Development Planning & Experimentation, or SDPE, office. This experiment has involved taking commercial off-the-shelf systems and deploying them to several combatant commands, or COCOMs, for training, testing and evaluation for a one-year period,\u201d the service said in a press release.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cFive DEWs were to be tested throughout the effort \u2013 three versions of the HELWS and two different high-power microwave systems. Four systems were tested in 2020, three of which have been deployed,\u201d the release added.<\/p>\n One of those high-power microwave experiments, the Tactical High Power Microwave Operational Responder (THOR),<\/a> is being developed with the Army, <\/a>and is aimed at the hard problem of taking down swarms of small drones. It is expected to be sent abroad (most likely to Africa) sometime this year<\/a>.\u00a0after months of delay caused by the COVID-19<\/a> pandemic<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re starting to see they\u2019ve had success, that the operators like them, that they are sustainable enough in the field that we\u2019re willing to actually keep those going, are starting to transition over to the Component and Combatant Commands to to actually keep those as a real world asset,\u201d Jirjis said.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-07-23-at-12.21.51-PM.png\")
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