BAE Systems Amps Up Directed Energy Work
BAE Systems unveiled its Future Technology Demonstrator armored vehicle at the Association of the U.S. Army convention in Washington this week, with a focus on directed-energy technology.
The FTD includes hardware from the company’s Future Combat Systems and Ground Combat Vehicle work, including a Qinetiq electric-drive system that supports hybrid power and can meet the power requirements of directed energy weapons.
Armament on the FTD includes a remotely operated weapons station based on the Navy Mk38 mount, and carrying a 30-mm ATK cannon and a prototype laser weapon. Boeing supplies the beam director, and the laser itself is an industrial type from IPG Photonics. Like other contractors, BAE Systems is touting the laser as a low-cost-per-kill weapon against small unmanned air vehicles and mortar rounds.
In a parallel development, BAE showed a model of a conceptual high-power microwave (HPM) weapon that it is studying under contract to the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Dahlgren division. Also installed on a Mk38 mount, the HPM weapon features an electro-optical aiming unit and a flat multi-element array, and is designed to interfere with the engines of small watercraft used for swarming attacks. A subscale test rig is being evaluated at Dahlgren to investigate its effects on small engines.
