Schafer Corp., a recognized leader in directed energy going back to 1972, is making a strategic move to take technology out of the lab and apply it to developing systems that can be fielded, a company official said.
“There’s a big shift, starting this year, so instead of playing as a company on the technical side, we’ll be more a part of developing systems,” said Jim Faist, vice president of Schafer’s Military Aerospace division. “We’re moving into an area of how to get applied research out of the lab into fielded systems We’re starting building prototypes for the Army and looking at how to support the Navy. We’re shifting more into system development.”
The big change from the directed energy work of the 1980s, he said, is that the promise of some of those early technology developments are coming to fruition and are on the way to fielding.
Photo: Courtesy of Schafer Corp.
That could include such programs as the Army’s current Army/AF Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) and the Navy’s Laser Weapons System (LaWS) and high energy rail gun.
“Solid state laser technology is gaining more power to meet the mission requirements, and a lot of acquisition in the pointing and tracking of objects and tracking through the atmosphere… is coming to fruition,” Faist told Defense Daily.
For the Navy, for example, economics is also a driver; compare the cost of missiles and how many it can put on a ship to a power-driven laser. For the Navy, there’s “high potential” in lasers for counter-missiles and counter-unmanned aerial vehicle systems.
The costs work in favor of the Air Force as well, he said. For example, instead of firing a $1 million AMRAAM missile to shoot down a $20,000 UAV, a laser is much less expensive, and there are more shots available, Faist said.
For the Army, using lasers for defense, counter-battery and against rockets and artillery and mortars would be “a huge step forward.”
Laser development is “really going” forward and with at least a tactical range, Faist said. However, getting funding is a long road, particularly when there are so many competing priorities.
A key area for investment are lasers for the Navy and ground force, Faist said.
Schafer has expertise in virtually all areas of DE research, development, testing and systems deployment. The DE work for the Defense Department began and is mainly based in Albuquerque, N.M. Lasers were a particularly hot commodity in the 1980s, during the Reagan Star Wars era, where work on technology for space and ground-based laser programs took off.
Currently, Schafer Corp. is a subsidiary of Metalmark Capital Partners.