Rheinmetall 20 kW laser on Boxer 8x8 presented at DSEI 2015
Technological progress has now reached a milestone when vehicle-mounted laser weapon systems have become a reality. Let's take a look at how these combat enhancement systems are evolving
Vehicle-mounted weapons are a low-cost combat enhancement tool used by both regular armies and irregular “asymmetric” formations involved in nearly every conflict in the world.
Until recently, the options for installing weapons on combat vehicles were limited to machine guns and artillery systems of various forms. However, the situation here began to change with the advent of laser systems or directed energy systems with sufficient power to burn out small aircraft and ammunition in the air.
The placement of bulky energy storage units for such systems has always been a serious problem, but recent developments have contributed to the reduction of lasers to a size that can be installed even in a large jeep.
Technological revolution
The 1990s saw a technological revolution in fiber-optic communications, accelerating the development of high-power solid-state lasers, which a decade later found applications in industrial processing such as branding, cutting, welding and melting.
These lasers were extremely effective at close range, but it was a matter of time for the industry to find a way to scale this technology and create futuristic weapons that could cut and melt targets at a distance of several hundred or even thousands of meters.
American defense giant Lockheed Martin did just that. Building on new technology for semiconductor manufacturing, solar cells and automotive welding, the company has developed a military laser machine that is hundreds of times more powerful than its commercial predecessors.
Robert Afzal, senior researcher at this company, says: “A real revolution is taking place in this area today, prepared by many years of gigantic work of researchers. And we believe the laser technology is finally ready in the sense that we are now able to create a laser powerful enough and small enough to fit into tactical vehicles.”
“Previous lasers were simply too big - they were entire stations. But with the advent of high-efficiency fiber laser technology with high quality beam, we finally have the final piece of the puzzle to fit these machines."
Civilian industry used lasers of the order of several kilowatts, but Afzal noted that military lasers should have a power of 10-100 kW.
"We have developed technology that allows us to scale the power of fiber lasers, not just by building a larger fiber laser, but by combining several kilowatt-class modules to achieve the power required by the military."
He said the laser is based on beam combining, a process that combines multiple laser modules to form one high-power, high-quality beam that delivers more efficiency and lethality than a few separate 10kW lasers.
White collimated beam
Describing the process of passing a beam of light through a prism, refracting into many colored streams, he explained: “If you have several laser beams, each with a slightly different color, entering this prism at exactly the right angle, they will all come out of this prism superimposed and will form a so-called white collimated beam."
“This is essentially what we are doing, but instead of a prism, we use another optical element called a diffraction grating, which performs the same function. That is, we build high-power laser modules, each at a slightly different wavelength, then combine them, reflecting from a diffraction grating, and at the output we get one high-power laser beam."
Afzal said the solution is actually a WDM technology from the telecommunications industry, combined with high-power industrial fiber lasers.
“The fiber laser is the most efficient and powerful laser ever developed,” he said. - That is, we are talking about a full electrical efficiency exceeding 30%, which was not even dreamed of 10-15 years ago, when we had an efficiency of 15-18%. This has a lot to do with power and cooling, so these systems may now get smaller. The laser is now scaled not by building a large laser, but by adding new modules."
The US Army recently "recruited" Lockheed Martin to create a high-power laser weapon system based on its ATHENA (Advanced Test High Energy Asset) installation, which can be installed on one of the company's light tactical vehicles.
During last year's tests, a 30 kW fiber laser prototype successfully knocked out the engine of a small pickup truck, burning a grille in a matter of seconds from a mile away. In order to simulate real operating conditions during the test, the pickup truck was installed on the platform with the engine running and the gear engaged.
New generation
In October 2015, Lockheed announced that it had begun production of a new generation of high-power modular lasers, the first of which with a capacity of 60 kW will be installed on a tactical vehicle of the American army.
Afzal said the army wants to deploy a vehicle-mounted laser for anti-aircraft missions, countering missiles, artillery shells and mortar ammunition, and UAVs. "We're looking at the tactical level of defense rather than missile defense in a strategic sense."
According to Lockheed, the modular solution allows the power to be adjusted according to the needs of a specific task and threat. The army has the ability to add more modules and increase the power from 60 kW to 120 kW.
Afzal continued: “The architecture scales according to your requirements: do you want 30 kW, 50 kW or 100 kW? It's like server modules in a server rack. We believe this is a flexible architecture - better suited for full-scale production. It allows you to have a module that you can re-create over and over, allowing you to customize the system to suit you."
“The system is adaptable to whatever vehicle you want to use, and that's why this technology is so impressive because it will allow the flexibility of the architecture to adapt to different vehicles without much tweaking what you decide to have. This makes it possible to obtain a system to provide support for both a combat brigade and an advanced operational base, for example."
The system uses commercial fiber lasers assembled into highly reproducible modules, making it highly affordable. The use of multiple fiber laser modules also reduces the likelihood of minor malfunctions, as well as the cost and scope of maintenance and repair.
When asked when a combat laser installed on a tactical vehicle might appear on the battlefield, Afzal suggested an approximate time frame: “We plan to deliver our laser at the end of 2016. After which the army will do its job for some time, and then we will see."
The attraction of the laser
There are several characteristics of tactical directed energy weapons that make them very attractive to modern military forces, including the low cost of "ammunition" and their speed, accuracy and ease of use.
“First of all, these are very accurate weapons with potentially very low collateral damage, which is important,” Afzal added. "The speed of light allows you to instantly irradiate a target, and therefore you can hit highly maneuverable targets, that is, you can keep the beam on a target that kinetic ammunition sometimes cannot handle."
Perhaps the most important advantage is the low cost of one effective “shot”.
“At this point, you don't want to spend expensive and powerful defensive kinetic weapons on cheap multiple threats,” Afzal continued. - We consider laser weapons as an addition to kinetic systems. We assume that you will be using the laser system against a large number of low-intensity low-cost threats, leaving your kinetic magazine for the attacking complex, armored, long-range threats."
Afzal suggests that the laser weapon can be deployed in the combat space in the operational control sensor network, which will provide initial target designation for it.
“First of all, a certain system must inform about the appearance of a threat, and then the operator of the command and control decides which countermeasure to use, determines the target, throws a laser on it and locks the target according to the radar data, after which the operator, seeing the target on the monitor, decides to bring whether the laser is in action”.
“Many problems have accumulated in this area, since the military all over the world have already fantasized about laser weapons for themselves decades ago, and the question is why we do not have them today. I think the main reason is that we did not have the technology to create a laser weapon component that was small enough and powerful enough to be placed on tactical vehicles.”
Final stages
Meanwhile, Boeing has also spent several years working on a High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD) for the US Army, which is currently in the final stages of development. Mounted on a truck chassis, a laser directs a high-power beam at threats that the army is likely to deal with, acting as an intercept system for unguided missiles, artillery shells, mines and UAVs. This system has so far achieved such accuracy that it can destroy sensors on drones, as was shown during the demonstration of a 10 kW laser at the White Sands Proving Ground in 2013 and again at Eglin AFB in 2014.
According to military specifications, the complete HEL MD system will consist of a high-power efficient laser and harsh-environment subsystems to be installed on a military vehicle. The system will be able to carry out, together with other means of destruction, the protection of certain zones, be it forward bases, naval facilities, air bases and other structures.
Boeing is developing several systems to integrate into a final prototype that will be installed on a modified Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT).
These subsystems include a laser; beam control; power supply; heat exchange control system and battle control system.
The US Army's Space Defense Command is developing the HEL MD in stages. The laser, power supply and heat exchange system will be improved over the next few years with the aim of increasing the power and technological development of the subsystems.
As technology improves, the modular nature of the components will allow the introduction of more powerful lasers, integrated with improved targeting and tracking capabilities.
Full cycle
According to Boeing, the HEL MD beam guide provides “all-sky” coverage as it rotates 360 ° and is raised above the roof of the vehicle to capture over-the-horizon targets. Continuous destruction of targets is simplified by heat exchange and power supply systems.
The entire system runs on diesel fuel; that is, all that is needed to replenish the "ammunition" of the weapon is a quick refueling. The lithium-ion batteries of the HEL MD system are recharged by a 60 kW diesel generator, therefore, as long as the army has fuel, it can function indefinitely.
The system is controlled by the car driver and plant operator using a laptop and an Xbox-type set-top box. The current demo model uses a 10 kW class laser. However, in the near future the laser will be installed in the 50 kW class, and in another two years its power will increase to 100 kW.
Boeing previously developed a smaller laser installation for the American army and installed it on the AN / TWQ-1 Avenger armored car, dubbed the Boeing Laser Avenger. A 1 kW solid-state laser is used to combat UAVs and neutralize improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The system works like this: it is aimed at an IED or unexploded ordnance on the side of the road with a gradual increase in the power of the laser beam until the explosive burns out in the process of low-power detonation. During tests in 2009, the Laser Avenger system successfully destroyed 50 such devices, similar to those encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition, another demonstration of the operation of this system was carried out, during which it destroyed several small drones.
Boeing Laser Avenger
Three-year plan
According to the German defense company Rheinmetall, in three years, it will offer its own high-power High Energy Laser (HEL) on the market, installed on a vehicle.
After a series of tests carried out in Switzerland in 2013, the company worked on expanding the software capabilities of the beamforming modules and the technology of the laser itself, after which it predicted that its laser system for combating ground targets, as well as for ground air defense could already be ready. in 2018.
Three machines were selected to operate as HEL mobile platforms. Along with the Boxer armored vehicle, the modified M113 armored personnel carrier with a 1-kW laser (Mobile HEL Effector Track V) and the Tatra 8x8 truck with two 10-kW lasers (Mobile HEL Effector Wheel XX) demonstrated their characteristics.
All three laser platforms
The 20 kW laser installed on the GTK Boxer armored vehicle is distinguished by the HEL executive module, the advantage of which lies in the modular construction principle. Rheinmetall says the Boxer has not yet had a laser with more than 20 kW power, although combining multiple lasers using beam alignment technology could increase its total power. In addition, several Boxer HEL units can be combined to create a system with an effective output of over 100 kW.
During demo tests conducted in 2013, the crew of the Boxer vehicle confirmed the capabilities of the HEL laser installation, disabling the heavy machine gun installed on the pickup without risking the machine gunner himself (photo below). In addition, working in tandem with the Skyguard radar station, the installation on a Tatra Mobile Effector Wheel XX truck has demonstrated all stages of neutralization of a helicopter-type UAV.
Heliport neutralization was carried out using SkyGuard radar, which detected and identified the target. Further, the HEL Boxer installation received data from him, performed rough and accurate tracking, and then captured the target for destruction.
Boeing's HEL MD laser system is under contract with the United States Rocket and Space Defense Command
Marine research
The United States Navy's Research and Development Administration (ONR) is testing its own vehicle-mounted solid-state combat laser, designated Ground-Based Air Defense Directed Energy On-the-Move (GBAD OTM). In fact, the system is a high-power laser mounted on a tactical vehicle and designed to protect expeditionary forces from enemy UAVs.
Given the increasing proliferation of unmanned aerial systems, the US Marine Corps suggests that combat units will increasingly be forced to defend against opponents conducting surveillance and reconnaissance from the air.
The GBAD OTM system is designed for installation on light tactical vehicles such as the HMMWV and JLTV (Joint Light Tactical Vehicle). According to the ONR, the GBAD OTM program is aimed at creating an alternative to traditional systems that can keep the marines from enemy reconnaissance and attack drones. Components of the GBAD OTM system, including the laser, beam aiming device, batteries, radar, cooling and control system, are jointly developed by ONR, the Navy's Dahlgren Center for Surface Weapons Development and several industrial enterprises.
The goal of the program is to combine all these components into a single complex, which will be small enough to be installed on light tactical armored vehicles, but powerful enough to deal with the intended threats.
Wide application
During the Sea-Air-Space 2015 conference in Washington, the head of programs for the protection of troops at the ONR, Lee Mastroiani, in a conversation with reporters, explained that lasers can effectively destroy threats across the entire spectrum of air defense, including missiles, artillery shells, mortar ammunition, UAVs, transport means and IEDs. "However, first of all, the GBAD system is designed to combat small-sized UAVs that pose a threat to our combat units."
“The GBAD OTM system consists of three main components: a three-axis radar tracking station that identifies a threat; a command and control unit that identifies and decides how to neutralize the threat in the event of the use of missiles or artillery weapons; and the actual platform with a laser."
Mastroiani noted that in the case of the GBAD program, the emphasis is on the development of a high-power laser for the destruction of UAVs installed on a light combat vehicle.
“There is a significant argument in favor of such a decision, which is that such threats are of low cost, that is, the use of expensive missiles in this case does not fit into our vision of the problem. Therefore, using a laser that costs a penny per pulse, you can safely fight cheap threats with a cheap weapon system. In general, the essence of the program is to fight against such targets even on the move in order to support the combat operations of the Marine Corps."
According to Mastroiani, the ONR used several components from the LaWS (Laser Weapon System) demonstration installation that the US Navy installed aboard the Ponce ship in the Persian Gulf.
“We use the principle of predictable avoidance, some of the key technologies and software, but there are also many other problems,” added Mastroiani. - As for the USS Ponce ship, there is plenty of space and everything else, while I have many problems regarding weight, size and power consumption characteristics when the system needs to be installed on a light tactical vehicle. I have a beam guiding device, power supply, cooling systems, guidance and target designation, and all this should work in concert and without "plugs", so a lot of different problems must be solved in this separately taken project."
According to the ONR, some of the system's components were used in tests to detect and track drones of various sizes, and the entire system was tested with a 10kW laser, which is an intermediate solution when moving to a 30kW laser. It is planned that field tests of the 30 kW system will take place in 2016, when the program will begin comprehensive tests with the aim of moving from simple detection and tracking to firing from light military vehicles.
