Monday February 3^rd 2025

Article Info

Last week, Army Recognition released an article titled “US Navy Transforms Naval Protection with HELIOS Laser’s Power on USS Preble at Sea”

Article Summary

This is just one of many articles and posts that covered a highly publicized photo showing the USS Preble (DDG-88) firing its High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) while at sea.

The HELIOS system was developed by Lockheed Martin with a program that was initiated back in 2018 on an initial $150 million dollar contract. The HELIOS laser operates at an initial power level of 60 kilowatts. The system design affords the opportunity for future efforts to scale the weapon system power up to 120 kilowatts.

60-kilowatt class weapon outputting a large beam with a 16.5 cm spot size would have an average power density of just over 561 W/cm².

To put that into perspective, 561 W/cm² roughly matches the conditions of our recently released How Fast Will it Burn? Laser vs. Cardboard video. We used just a 500-Watt beam focused to a 1.5 cm spot size. The average laser power density of this combination is nearly 566 W/cm².  That much laser power density toasted the cardboard we tested instantaneously when we exposed the cardboard to the laser’s energy!

Check it out!:

It’s also worth giving a shout out to Benjamin Johnson for his great post on all this HELIOS coverage in LinkedIn.

Note: Quick laser power density calculations can be completed at gentec-eo.com

Article image: The U.S. Navy’s Center for Countermeasures (CCM) supervised demonstrations in which the system successfully engaged unmanned aerial targets, validating its functional and operational performance (Picture source: US Navy)

Tuesday February 4^th 2025

Article Info

DefenceBlog.com published an article titled “Ukraine confirms use of laser weapons” by Dylan Malyasov

Article Summary

This article discusses an interview with Radio Svoboda, Sukharevskyi who confirms in his statement:

“I will repeat: laser technologies are already striking certain targets at certain altitudes”

Perhaps some key speculation on the new ‘Tryzub’ system can be put to rest with the revelation that this is an indigenous laser weapon system. Apparently, this system has been able to down enemy aircraft at altitudes exceeding two kilometers.

Image caption: HEL Weapon (from the article)

Wednesday JaNUary 29^th 2025

Article Info

National Interest published an article titled “The U.S. Navy is Going All In on Lasers” by Peter Suciu

Article Summary

Peter starts one of his other article by referencing the remarks of a top admiral declaring the current state of Navy HELs as an embarrassment that article ran on January 24^th 2025. So it is admittedly odd when this flurry of positive HELIOS press hit just weeks later.

Other interesting parts of this article includes the report the HELIOS has a range of approximately five miles (eight kilometers). Another past test of a 150 kW-class HEL is mentioned as a cautionary tale in that this test showed the system required a full 15 seconds of lazing time to defeat a slow moving airborne drone. Suciu also points out another key issue with laser weapon employment regarding the ability to power these systems up. This is a particularly pressing problem given that many ships that might otherwise be good candidates for a new laser weapon system weren’t designed to handle the intensive power requirements that a HEL needs to operate.

Image caption: HEL Weapon (from the article)

Thursday February 6^th 2025

Article Info

ETV Bharat has an article by the ETV Bharat Tech Team titled “Race for Rays: From China to India, the Worldwide Quest for Laser Weapon Systems”.

Article Summary

This article provides an insightful overview of various countries’ efforts to develop and deploy high-energy laser (HEL) weapons. It covers advancements in China, Germany, Israel, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and India.

While proof-of-concept demonstrations are one thing, the bigger question remains—will we see a breakthrough this year in scaling up manufacturing to field these systems in meaningful quantities?

Image caption: Representational picture (ETV Bharat via Copilot Designer)