By Emelie Rutherford
As the Navy prepares to launch a project aimed at ultimately developing a three-megawatt free-electron laser (FEL) for ship defense, an official said the service will assess its progress mid-way through to determine the feasibility of reaching such a high level of power.
A FEL provides intense beams of laser light that can be tuned to precise wavelengths and be controlled with great precision. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) sees a future FEL–more powerful than what is available now–transforming shipboard weaponry, by providing deep fire with speed-of-light delivery, seconds’ dwell time, and unlimited shots.
ONR plans to announce in November which proposals it will accept in response to a March broad area announcement (BAA) for a 100-kilowatt class FEL experimental device. The Navy plans to award up to three initial contracts and eventually wants one of the awardees to build a 100-kilowatt laser.
The contracts tie in with a free-electron laser Innovative Naval Prototype (INP), which is slated to officially start in fiscal year 2010 and was approved last year by a senior naval science-and-technology corporate board.
INPs are big-ticket, high-risk, high-payoff items with low technology-readiness levels (TRLs). ONR’s goal with FELs is to raise the efforts from a TRL-2 or TRL-3 to a TRL-6, and have a usable prototype after four to eight years, Lawrence Schuette, director of innovation at ONR, said at the ONR S&T Partnership Conference in Washington this week.
The FEL INP, though, won’t continue uninterrupted toward the goal of reaching a three-megawatt laser, he said.
“To field a free-electron-laser demonstrator, we believe it will take two phases,” with the first phase being a 100-kilowatt effort, Schuette told Defense Daily.
“We’ve got a set of go/no-go criteria, where in FY ’15 or ’16 we would come back and say, ‘Yes, we met these goals. We demonstrated 100 kilowatt, we want to proceed to the next phase.’ We’ll go back to the corporate board and make that request.”
The current world record for a FEL is 14 kilowatts, a level not strong enough for a weapon. Schuette said “scientists believe…if you can go from 14 kilowatts to 100 kilowatts, the roadblocks from 100 kilowatts to three megawatts are less than the roadblocks from 14 kilowatts to 100 kilowatts.”
“Experts in the field believe it is possible,” he added. The National Academy of Sciences is assessing the feasibility of such a powerful laser and is expected to release a report by the end of September.
ONR sees a FEL providing naval platforms “with a highly effective and affordable point defense capability against many surface and air threats, future anti-ship cruise missiles or a swarm of small boats,” according to a fact sheet.
“We see the laser not being the replacement for anything, but the laser being a complement to everything,” Schuette said.
“So whether it’s a point defense or defending a high-value asset, whether you’re currently using CIWS [close-in weapon system], Sea Sparrow [missile], Standard Missile–a laser will complement all of those systems against target sets,” he said.
Schuette said he finds the concept of using a FEL on a Navy ship “so compelling.”
“It’s not like an airborne-laser system where you bring chemicals on board and you vent over the side, and maybe you remitigate by atmospherics,” he said, citing concerns about on-board chemicals and paint. “So we’re very excited about a free-electron laser, we’re very excited about the prospect of an electric ship enabling that.”
The Navy recently proposed buying fewer of the electric-power DDG-1000 destroyers than previously planned. Asked about how this might impact FEL plans, Schuette said the laser could be used on aircraft carriers.
He also noted the distinct roles of acquisition programs and technology demonstrations.
“There are other ships out there with electric power coming, we’ll be ready for them,” he said.
Two INPs are slated to start in FY ’10: one for the INP and another to integrate antennas on ship topsides.
Four INPs are current underway, for an electromagnetic rail gun, seabasing enablers, a tactical satellite, and persistent-littoral-undersea surveillance.
These efforts now have approximately $160 million to $170 million in combined annual funding, Schuette said Tuesday during a presentation at the ONR conference.
Two more INPs, which will have FY ’12 starts, will be vetted by the S&T corporate board next summer, he said.
For the FY ’12 new starts, Schuette said the Navy is asking: “What are the things that we can provide the Marine Corps and the Navy in the next 10 to 15 years that will change how they fight in a way that’s to our benefit? And what technology would we leverage or will we leverage? And if we identify something, is it really game changing? And what do we really get out of it?”
He cited some ideas that have arisen during discussions about the next FELs, including whether it is “the right time for autonomous behavior.”
“So if you see persistent-littoral-undersea surveillance, [there are] a number of autonomous behaviors that we’re driving toward,” he said. “What would that look like across air, sea, and undersea? What would we do with a persistent ISR that had autonomous region of interest extraction? What would we do with a maintenance-free ship? What could we demonstrate in a ship that required no maintenance, or the maintenance was so reduced that you could actually put 40 or 50 people on it and have it go 30 years?”
Other ideas, Schuette said, relate to integrated electronic-warfare capabilities for sea and air, advanced simulation and immersion training, and unmanned-air vehicles (UAV) for resupply and medical-extraction missions.
“In order to come up with some of these topics, and to look through them over the next six months, we’re going to be bringing in industry and academia…and actually do some workshops to really look at what’s the art of the possible,” he said.