directed energy

Report to Congress on Defense Department Directed Energy Weapons

The following is the Sept. 13, 2022 Congressional Research Service report, Department of Defense Directed Energy Weapons: Background and Issues for Congress.

From the report

Directed energy (DE) weapons use concentrated electromagnetic energy, rather than kinetic energy, to combat enemy forces. Although the United States has been researching directed energy since the 1960s, some experts have observed that the Department of Defense (DOD) has invested billions of dollars in DE programs that failed...

https://news.usni.org/2022/09/14/report-to-congress-on-defense-department-directed-energy-weapons

Report on Navy Laser, Railgun and Gun-Launched Guided Projectile

The following is the April 1, 2022, Congressional Research Service report, Navy Lasers, Railgun, and Gun-Launched Guided Projectile: Background and Issues for Congress.

From the report

This report provides background information and issues for Congress on three potential new ship-based self-defense weapons for the Navy—solid state lasers (SSLs), the electromagnetic railgun (EMRG), and the gun-launched guided projectile (GLGP), also known as the hypervelocity projectile (HVP).

The Navy’s proposed...

https://news.usni.org/2022/04/06/report-on-navy-laser-railgun-and-gun-launched-guided-projectile

Navy Installing More Directed Energy Weapons on DDGs, Conducting Land-Based Laser Testing This Year

Artist’s concept of a HELIOS laser system aboard a U.S. destroyer. Lockheed Martin Image

RIVERDALE, Md. – The Navy continues to learn more about a pair of directed energy weapons, as the service installs the fourth and fifth dazzler system this year and begins land-based testing of a high-energy laser weapon, the program executive officer for integrated warfare systems told USNI News.

The Navy has been in parallel working on an Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN) program, a nonlethal weapon...

https://news.usni.org/2021/04/07/navy-installing-more-directed-energy-weapons-on-ddgs-conducting-land-based-laser-testing-this-year

Panel: Many U.S. Defense Spending Trends Based on What’s Happening in China, Russia

The launch of the Type 75 big-deck amphib in Shanghai. PLAN Photo

Questions about China’s defense spending, programs and systems – and the Pentagon’s response – dominated a Wednesday House Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing on future U.S. defense spending trends.

Thomas Mahnken, chief executive officer of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, told the subcommittee that, when it comes to Beijing’s current security spending, “the majority of their spending is actually on...

https://news.usni.org/2021/02/26/panel-many-u-s-defense-spending-trends-based-on-whats-happening-in-china-russia

U.S. Holds Slim Edge over China in Artificial Intelligence, Former Google Chairman Says

Eric Schmidt, technical advisor to the board of Alphabet Inc., which is the parent company of Google, speaks at a public meeting of the Defense Innovation Board in Austin, Texas March 5, 2020. DoD Photo

The chairman of a special commission on artificial intelligence warned Congress the United States is only one to two years ahead of China in developing artificial intelligence, as Beijing remains “relentlessly focused” on achieving dominance across the broad spectrum of high technologies.

Testifyin...

https://news.usni.org/2021/02/23/u-s-holds-slim-edge-over-china-in-artificial-intelligence-former-google-chairman-says

Pentagon Shifts Focus on Directed Energy Weapons Technology

Artist’s concept of a HELIOS laser system aboard a U.S. destroyer. Lockheed Martin Image

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Department of Defense is focusing its directed energy weapons research on technologies ready to field now, placing on the backburner plans to create more complex space-based technology, the Pentagon’s head of research said on Wednesday.

Exploring the usefulness of directed energy, specifically figuring out how to increase the wattage of these weapons, is the Pentagon’s focus now, Michael...

https://news.usni.org/2019/09/05/pentagon-shifts-focus-on-directed-energy-weapons-technology

Combined Raytheon And United Technologies Will Pursue Hypersonic Weapons Development

Raytheon and United Technologies executives spent this week pitching their proposed combined operations as a deal intended to create a defense industry research and development powerhouse.

Cash flows from the combined operations of both companies will fuel the development of directed energy weapons, hypersonic weapons and counter-hypersonic missile systems, the chief executives of both Raytheon and United Technologies said during separate conference calls with analysts this week.

The Department...

https://news.usni.org/2019/07/26/combined-raytheon-and-united-technologies-will-pursue-hypersonic-weapons-development

Navy Studying How Lasers Could Power Unmanned Vehicles

A microwave/electro-optic (MS32) electronics engineer at Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Corona Division, uses visible lasers to align various optical components on Aug. 29, 2014. US Navy Photo

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – Along with using lasers to fry an adversary’s swarming drones, a team of U.S. Navy engineers is evaluating whether directed energy can also be an effective power supply for charging autonomous unmanned surface and air vehicles.

A capital ship generates a tremendous amount of...

https://news.usni.org/2019/05/08/navy-studying-how-lasers-could-power-unmanned-vehicles

Lockheed Martin: Sixth-Generation Fighter Could Have Laser Weapon

Artist’s concept of a HELIOS laser system aboard a U.S. destroyer. Lockheed Martin Image

ARLINGTON, Va. – Lasers to counter unmanned aerial vehicles and sensors to scan the horizon, scrambling an adversary’s electronic equipment while relaying information to other systems – all packaged in a stealthy airframe – could be possible for a sixth-generation fighter, according to experts at Lockheed Martin.

Lockheed Martin officials provided the media a view of electronic warfare in the near future...

https://news.usni.org/2019/05/01/lockheed-martin-sixth-generation-fighter-could-have-laser-weapon

Navy Ready to ‘Burn the Boats’ with 2021 Laser Installation on a Destroyer

Artist’s concept of a HELIOS laser system aboard a U.S. destroyer. Lockheed Martin Image

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the next two years, the Navy wants to deploy a laser aboard a guided-missile destroyer as the service learns to integrate directed energy weapon systems on warships, the Navy’s director of surface warfare said on Wednesday.

“We are going to burn the boats if you will and move forward with this technology,” Rear Adm. Ron Boxall said during the Booz, Allen, Hamilton and CSBA Directed...

https://news.usni.org/2019/03/20/navy-ready-burn-boats-2021-laser-installation-destroyer

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