Northrop Grumman Awarded Phase Two Fiber Laser Contracts With DARPA: "Northrop Grumman has surpassed Phase I goals for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Revolution in Fiber Lasers (RIFL) program that seeks to mature fiber laser technology. As a result, the company has received a contract for Phase II.
'This is an important step in the maturation of fiber laser technology,' said Dan Wildt, vice president of Directed Energy Systems for Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector. 'By surpassing Phase I goals, we are in an excellent position for success in Phase II. Success in Phase II will create a powerful springboard for scaling fiber lasers to weapons-class performance levels.'
With a 1 kilowatt (kW) single mode fiber amplifier, the company demonstrated a near-perfect beam quality of better than 1.2 and efficiency better than 30 percent, twice the program's goal of 15 percent."
