The Boeing Company has successfully demonstrated that its Avenger-mounted 1 kW solid-state laser system can neutralize improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and unexploded ordnance (UXO). During the test, the system took a step toward demonstrating a counter-unmanned-aerial-vehicle (UAV) capability by destroying two small UAVs that were stationary on the ground.

During laser firings in September at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., the Laser Avenger engaged and destroyed five targets representing IED and UXO threats. The laser was shown to be effective at ranges that allowed the system to be operated at safe distances from the target.

Laser Avenger also is the latest in a series of upgrades to expand the Avenger air-defense system into an agile multirole weapon system (AMWS) with ground-to-ground as well as ground-to-air capabilities. The laser was added while retaining Avenger's ability to carry other weapons, including missiles and a machine gun. The laser will also have uses beyond the counter-IED, counter-UXO mission. For example, it could be upgraded to have a shoot-on-the-move capability and to destroy other kinds of targets, including low-flying UAVs.

According to Boeing, this laser — a diode-pumped, Ytterbium (Yb) optical fiber — is publicly sold for industrial welding applications. As such, the system draws upon techniques used in the driver electronics of conventional laser diodes, and the pumping diodes can be supplied from a standard ac or dc source to continuously drive the laser at its 1 kW rated output power. To sustain this operation, the laser system is equipped with a closed-loop water-cooling system.

Boeing states that the primary energy source for the laser in the Avenger system is the vehicle's alternator, the output of which is conditioned to provide 24 Vdc to 28 Vdc at 400 A. In the present configuration of the Avenger system, this power is then transformed into three-phase, 208 Vac, which is fed directly to the laser in its commercial-shop configuration. However, a system that feeds dc directly to the laser is being planned.

“Boeing's investment strategy is to move some of its new directed energy weapon systems into field demonstrations, and Laser Avenger is the first one we're rolling out,” said Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Directed Energy Systems. “Laser Avenger provides the speed-of-light and ultraprecision capability that the warfighter needs to safely neutralize improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnance.”

For more information, visit www.boeing.com/ids/mds.

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