Excalibur
Abstract
The Excalibur program will develop high-power electronically-steerable optical arrays, with each array element powered by a fiber laser amplifier. These fiber-laser arrays will be sufficiently lightweight, compact, and electrically efficient to be fielded on a variety of platforms with minimal impact to the platform's original mission capabilities. Each array element will possess an adaptive-optic capability to minimize beam divergence in the presence of atmospheric turbulence, together with wide-field-of-view beam steering for target tracking. With each Excalibur array element powered by high power fiber laser amplifiers (at up to 3 kilowatts (kW) per amplifier), high power air-to-air and air-to-ground engagements will be enabled that were previously infeasible because of laser system size and weight. In addition, this program will also develop kilowatt-class arrays of diode lasers which will provide an alternate route to efficiently reaching mission-relevant power levels, and they will test the ultimate scalability of the optical phased array architecture. Excalibur arrays will be conformal to aircraft surfaces and scalable in size and power by adding elements to the array. By defending airborne platforms such as unmanned aerial vehicles against proliferated, deployed, and next-generation man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS), Excalibur will enable these reconnaissance platforms to fly at lower altitude and obtain truly persistent, all-weather ground reconnaissance despite low-lying cloud cover. Proliferated and emerging threats will be evaluated for the potential of developing a near-term capability utilizing a single high-power fiber laser amplifier. Further capabilities include multichannel laser communications, target identification, tracking, designation, precision defeat with minimal collateral effects as well as other applications. The Excalibur Budget Activity 2 program will develop the core set of laser components for efficiently driving elements of high-power electronically steerable optical arrays, namely, high-power coherently- and spectrally-combinable fiber laser amplifiers, high-brightness laser diodes for efficiently pumping the fiber laser amplifiers, and kW-class single-mode laser diode arrays. In addition, advanced techniques (packaging, thermal and power management, beam control, target tracking, etc.) will be developed for light-weight (300-500 lb), high power (3 kW - 10 kW) fiber-laser based and podded High Energy Laser Countermeasure (HELCM) systems enabling near-term options for low-altitude self-defense against MANPADS. The vulnerabilities of MANPADS and their potential to incorporate counter-countermeasures to HELCM systems will also be measured and assessed. These techniques and measurements will be designed to work in tandem with and to support the HELCM prototype subsystems developed under the Budget Activity 3 Excalibur program in PE 0603739E, Project MT-15. The Excalibur Budget Activity 2 program will also conduct several analytical studies relevant to scaling and applications of high-efficiency (30% - 40% wall plug efficient) high power electric lasers, that will examine: the potential to scale the output power of diode pumped alkali lasers (DPALs) to tactical and strategic levels (100's kW - MW class); the potential for integrating low-cost, high-sensitivity, wide-field-of-view imaging seekers and directional acoustic cueing into extended-altitude MANPADS; and the potential to use high power fiber lasers for long range target identification and tracking.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2013
- Source ID
- df47ba4bd77e42d4b605a0935765e693
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- Root: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY