Northrop Grumman will help the US Air Force mature its plans to use directed energy systems for self-protection on current and future aircraft under a contract awarded by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).
The contract calls for Northrop Grumman to develop and produce the beam control portion of an airborne laser weapon demonstration system that AFRL is developing under its Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) programme.
The laser weapon will be housed in a pod attached to a fighter-sized aircraft. The system will be tested on a tactical aircraft flying at speeds up to supersonic. AFRL expects to begin flight-testing the integrated system by 2019.
Northrop Grumman is developing the SHiELD beam control system under a segment of the ATD programme known as SHiELD Turret Research in Aero Effects, or STRAFE.
AFRL will integrate the STRAFE beam control system with a laser source and power and cooling systems developed for the SHiELD ATD.
W Mark Skinner, Vice President, Directed Energy, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, said: “Our Northrop Grumman-led team is integrating an innovative beam director with proven beam control technologies to help the Air Force define and successfully demonstrate a laser weapon capability for current and next generation aircraft.
“The beam control system characterises the flight environment for atmospheric disturbances that could distort the laser beam, acquires and tracks incoming targets, determines an aim point for the laser, then ‘shapes’ and focuses the outgoing beam on the target.”
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Mark Lane is a defence writer for defenceonline.co.uk and the MoD’s Defence Contracts Bulletin. He is also editor of Global Trader, sub-editor of Insider Scotland and a former editor of Business Today.
AFRL International laser weapon Northrop Grumman SHiELD STRAFE US US Air Force
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