Joint High Power Solid-State Laser (JHPSSL) Program

By Northrop Grumman
Possibly might be incorporated into a future version of the JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) F-35
Joint High Power Solid-State Laser (JHPSSL) Program

Designed to accelerate solid-state laser technology for military uses, the JHPSSL program is funded by the Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Huntsville, Ala; Office of the Secretary of Defense - Joint Technology Office, Albuquerque; Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.; and the Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Va.

Under the current phase (Phase 3), the program's goal is for a laser system to reach 100 kW, setting the stage for a variety of force protection and strike missions such as shipboard defense against cruise missiles; wide-area, ground-based defense against rockets, artillery, and mortars; and precision strike missions for airborne platforms.

Northrop Grumman surpassed a critical milestone on the JHPSSL 2 program when it demonstrated a laser system with a total power of greater than 27 kW with a run time of 350 seconds.

Northrop Grumman's approach utilizes amplifier chains assembled with multiple high-power gain modules. The company's JHPSSL demonstrator used two chains to demonstrate the 27 kW level achieved during Phase 2. Avoiding the need for new physics or scaling, the company's 100 kW architecture uses eight chains, very similar to those used in its 27 kW device.

JHPSSL Phase 1 addressed risk reduction of the technologies necessary to obtain high power and beam quality simultaneously. Phase 2 took these technologies and scaled them to greater than 25 kW, and showed further scalability to 100 kW and beyond.




JHPSSL
http://www.st.northropgrumman.com/capabilities/directed_energy_syst/laser_sys...

Other possible versions
http://www.st.northropgrumman.com/capabilities/directed_energy_syst/laser_sys...

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Joint
• High
• Power
• Solid-State
• Laser
• JHPSSL
• Program
• Northrop
• Grumman
• JSF
• Strike
• Fighter
• F-35
• Weapon

[diablogamer45]

Chinese lasers can blind sensitive spy satellites, not destroy missiles.

US now has firestrike laser ready, sorry you lose =)

[Jimbo898]

What I love,is they are controlling the thing from a Dell Laptop, probably running Windows. I would laugh if the blue screen of death popped up while firing.

[techraan]

And Firestrike is only 15 kW, which isn't small potatoes, but still. the 105.5 kW laser that has now passed the 3rd phase of JHPSSL is a bad boy.

[diablogamer45]

The firestrike can apparently be used for destroying incoming projectiles such as RPG's, missiles, mortars, etc, and offensive precision strikes. I read it could be mounted on tanks /helis and has variable configuration. The US currently has the most comprehensive integrated sattelite network in the world, one which China hasn't come close to matching. Once Chinese (or other potential power threats) have, then you'll see US lasers made to blind them. Believe it is not intended for JSF.

[ATFSCrash]

Diablogamer45; The firestrike laser seems pretty small. Do you know what platform(s)it is intended for and what its potential targets are? It seems rather small to attack satellites from the surface or from atmospheric aircraft. I would suspect it would be mounted on road vehicles or aircraft. Do you know if its intended for the JSF?

[law8673]

yeah the awful blue screen problem. But managed to fix it by downloading latest version of bios

[baronofcheese]

well lasers have a lot of disadvantages compared to projectile weapons, until they're able to make small batteries powerful enough, laser weapons will be strictly limited to mounted versions on ships, tanks, planes, and other vehicles. unless people are fine carrying 20 car batteries on them. give it some 50 years, maybe 100.

[aleazcazan]

russia has old 1970s chemical lasers... way too big to be portable.. we want to put them on tanks, ships, and in the far future.... rifles and handheld weapons... "ala star trek."

[Globalizator1]

Power must be 100 kwatt.And it should work for 4 seconds to hit targets

[edwong3]

Red China has been deploying a ground based laser defense systems for quite some time now. Not sure about what they, or the Russians have done about airborne versions.