Northrop to Build Laser Weapon Prototype for the US Navy

The Navy is working with Northrop Grumman on a three-year deal to develop a ship-board laser weapon engineered to quickly incinerate enemy drones, small boats, aircraft, ships and missiles, service officials told Scout Warrior.

"This system employs multi-spectral target detection and track capabilities as well as an advanced off-axis beam director with improved fiber laser technologies to provide extended target engagement ranges. Improvements of high power fiber lasers used to form the laser beam enable the increased power levels and extended range capabilities. Lessons learned, operating procedures, updated hardware and software derived from previous systems will be incorporated in this demonstration," Dr. Tom Beutner, director of the Air Warfare and Weapons branch, Office of Naval Research, told Scout Warrior in a written statement.

The 12-month, $53-million deal with the Office of Naval Research will develop a Laser Weapon System Demonstrator through three phases; the phases include an initial design phase, ground-testing phase and then weapons testing at sea aboard a Navy Self Defense test ship, a Northrop statement said.

“The company will design, produce, integrate, and support the shipboard testing of a 150-kilowatt-class solid state (electric) laser weapon system,” the Northrop statement added. “The contract could grow to a total value of $91 million over 34 months if ONR exercises all of its contract options.”

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Northrop Grumman Wins 150 kilowatt Solid State High Power Laser Weapon System Demonstrator Contract for $53M

Northrop Grumman Space and Mission Systems Corp., Redondo Beach, California, is being awarded a $53,151,809 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Solid State High Power Laser Weapon System Demonstrator (LWSD) program. The Office of Naval Research funded the Maritime Laser Demonstrator (MLD) which was the first to demonstrate defeat of small boats at sea using a high energy laser. Recent advancements in the power and durability of commercially available solid state laser (SSL) technologies have enabled the Navy to execute a quick-reaction effort and operationally field an SSL weapon. The Navy Laser Weapon System (LaWS) AN/SEQ-3(XN-1) was installed on USS Ponce in the summer of 2014. After a series of test and certification steps, LaWS is now the first-ever fully approved laser weapon system deployed by any U.S. military service. The Office of Naval Research seeks to continue the advancement of SSL weapon system designs, architectures, and component technologies. The government believes that improvements in lethality may be achieved through maturation and optimization of a variety of system characteristics, including laser power, beam quality, beam director architecture, and other physical and optical aspects of the laser, beam director, and system design. Leveraging our experience and internal investments, the Northrop Grumman team is ready to fully support the three phases of the LWSD program. This contract contains options, which if exercised, will bring the contract value to $91,057,597.

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minor update: the laser will be tested on the self defense ship in starting in 2018.

LOCUST: ONR's Swarming Drone Demonstration

US ONR Developing Robopocalyptic Manufacturing Process for F-35 Canopies

The US Office of Naval Research (ONR) recently received a national manufacturing award for developing a method to build canopies for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II that could save the military $125 million over the life of the programme.

ONR spearheaded the effort to automate a thermoforming process used to create the F-35 canopy – the transparent portion of the cockpit enclosure – that will be applied to at least 2,000 of the aircraft. The new process also makes the manufacturing work safer, ONR says.

Officials from ONR’s Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) program accepted the Department of Defense’s Joint Defense Manufacturing Technology Achievement Award at the Defense Manufacturing Conference in San Antonio.

“This award confirms our commitment to developing the most efficient and cost-effective ways to manufacture some of the most critical hardware our Sailors and Marines use,” John Carney, director of ONR’s ManTech programme, says in a prepared statement.

The existing canopy manufacturing process requires loading an acrylic shell into a forming tool, which then is slid into a 93.3°C (200°F) oven. The canopy forms within the mold over six days, during which “workers regularly enter the oven to makes observations and manually adjust positioning clamps to control the forming process”, ONR says.

ONR’s new method includes cameras and clamps that adjust automatically to maintain a uniform canopy shape, thus relieving workers from having to enter the oven. The process also takes only two to three days, ONR says.

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