Northrop Grumman To Increase Efficiency For Next-Gen Military Laser Technology: "Northrop Grumman will leverage its recent high-energy solid-state laser successes to advance electric laser technology by substantially increasing the efficiency of these systems for military uses.
This work will be done under a new U.S. Department of Defense program called the Robust Electric Laser Initiative (RELI), a first step toward developing the next generation of military laser technology for more efficient, lighter and smaller systems.
The Army Space and Missile Defense Command / Army Strategic Forces Command in Huntsville, Ala., awarded Northrop Grumman an initial two-year, $8.8 million contract with options that could extend it to a five-year contract valued at $53.3 million.
The RELI program seeks to increase system efficiency to greater than 30 percent while generating good beam quality, a power level of 25 kilowatts (kW) that is capable of being scaled to 100kW, all of which could be packaged on a military platform. Solid-state laser systems currently are about 20 percent efficient, according to the Defense Department."
