DOD's Directed Energy Roadmap May Be Nearing Completion

The U.S. Defense Department may be nearing completion of a roadmap on directed energy (DE) programs.

Ron Sega, DOD’s director of defense research and engineering, is expected to receive a presentation Nov. 29 on the proposed roadmap, which his office has been developing at the request of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman. If Sega endorses the document, it will be delivered to Rumsfeld’s deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, for his review.

According to a recent information paper released by DOD’s Office of Force Transformation, the roadmap is supposed to provide the department with “a coherent development and fielding strategy for directed energy capabilities.” DE systems have potential as “offensive and defensive weapons, sensors, communications and countermeasures for tactical and operational joint forces,” the paper says.

A wide range of DE efforts already are being pursued across DOD, including the Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne Laser (ABL) program, which plans to mount a Northrop Grumman chemical laser on a Boeing 747-400 freighter to shoot down ballistic missiles. By year’s end, the ABL program hopes to achieve first light, on the ground, of the chemical laser and first flight of Lockheed Martin’s beam control/fire control system (DAILY, Aug. 20, Sept. 15).

The Army is exploring several DE capabilities, including the Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL), designed to destroy artillery shells, mortars, rockets and unmanned aerial vehicles. The Army hopes to start testing a Northrop Grumman-built MTHEL prototype in about fiscal 2008 (DAILY, Oct. 28).

In December, DOD’s Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) program is slated to conduct laboratory demonstrations of three 25-kilowatt solid-state lasers designed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon (DAILY, Sept. 29). The tests could lead to the development of more powerful laboratory versions of the electrically driven lasers.

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