US defense contractor Northrop Grumman announced on Monday that it recently completed a preliminary design review for a high-energy laser prototype.
As the company notes, the new 300 kilowatt class laser weapon system will have an architecture that can be scaled up to more than one megawatt for the US Department of Defense.
This review establishes the company’s engineering approach to precision, low-cost, light-speed technology for military operations.
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“This is an important step in our ability to combine high-powered laser beams into a single beam that can be used,” said Robert Fleming, vice president and general manager, strategic space systems, Northrop Grumman. can be scaled for maximum capacity. “We are on track to demonstrate the technology, leveraging our decades of experience in the field.”
In March 2021, the United States Department of Defense awarded Northrop Grumman a $72 million contract under the High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI) to demonstrate a prototype energy laser. high quality using Northrop Grumman’s coherent beam fusion technology.
The company will test the prototype at increasingly high power later this year to demonstrate a coherent beam-coupled design.
