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Report to Congress on Navy Shipboard Lasers - USNI News

The following is from the Aug. 29, 2022, Congressional Research Service report, Navy Shipboard Lasers: Background and Issues for Congress. From the report This report provides background information and issues for Congress on shipboard solid state lasers (SSLs) that the Navy is developing for...
news.usni.org news.usni.org
 
The Soviets never 'fessed up to bombarding the embassy with microwaves, although eventually they turned it off in the 1970s under U.S. pressure. The prevailing theory today is they were using the microwaves to activate secret listening devices they had installed to eavesdrop on the conversations of U.S. diplomats
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I really think this is true. Although modern "services" would be using HPMW for a dual use (double sin) .

A must read:

news.yahoo.com

How a Soviet plot to beam the U.S. Embassy with microwaves led to a 'brain weapons arms race'

In some of the darkest days of the Cold War, the U.S. intelligence community was alarmed by a startling discovery: the Soviet Union was bombarding the U.S. Embassy in Moscow with microwaves in what some officials feared was an attempt to harm American diplomats and possibly even mess with their...
news.yahoo.com news.yahoo.com
 
Airbus stepped in space harvested solar energy for on-earth usage (link in French but the couple of pictures should sum it up pretty well) with energy transmission b/w two on-ground buildings:

www.usinenouvelle.com

Comment Airbus compte exploiter l’énergie solaire… depuis l’espace

Entre urgence climatique et souveraineté énergétique, l’exploitation de l’énergie solaire depuis l'espace pourrait servir de planche de...-L'instant Tech
www.usinenouvelle.com www.usinenouvelle.com
 
TomcatViP said:
Airbus stepped in space harvested solar energy for on-earth usage (link in French but the couple of pictures should sum it up pretty well) with energy transmission b/w two on-ground buildings:

www.usinenouvelle.com

Comment Airbus compte exploiter l’énergie solaire… depuis l’espace

Entre urgence climatique et souveraineté énergétique, l’exploitation de l’énergie solaire depuis l'espace pourrait servir de planche de...-L'instant Tech
www.usinenouvelle.com www.usinenouvelle.com
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Interesting but it says microwaves not laser.
 
Yeah, maybe. But it depends how the microwave beam is produced. Is it actually produced by stimulated emissions of microwave radiation? Some of the article is pay-walled, so I don't know. Not all microwave transmitters are masers.
 


This follows Alfalight's successful completion of Phase I in which Alfalight developed working diode lasers that surpassed the targeted 65% efficiency (see Laser Focus World, March 2005, p. 59). Phase II will enable Alfalight to continue making fundamental improvements to the power-conversion efficiency (PCE) of pump laser diodes and to develop high-efficiency, high-power diode-laser stacks. High-PCE laser diodes are a key enabling component for high-power laser systems, amplifiers, and industrial lasers by allowing higher output power with less waste heat.
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Alfalight demonstrated 71% efficiency in a 970-nm, 55-W laser bar at 25ºC in November 2004, and was certified by NIST in March 2005 to have met the Phase I program objectives. Phase II of the program has a target of 80% PCE in a 480-W stacked array at 50ºC. Alfalight will focus on efficiency enhancement by further reducing the optical- and electrical-loss mechanisms of current designs, and by creating fundamentally more efficient diode laser structures using quantum dots and unique epitaxial growth methods.
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www.forbes.com

Lockheed Martin Laser Breakthroughs Could Signal A Turning Point For Missile Defense

High-energy lasers could provide an affordable means of defeating missile attacks that would overwhelm existing defenses.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
Reporter Sherman, one of the few people in the trade press who covers beam-weapons research, says that Pentagon officials are so impressed with recent progress that they may elect to skip the 500-watt stage and leap ahead to the megawatt weapon.
 
DE M SHORAD slipping a year, Army at AUSA said it needs to continue to learn and continue to mature and will remain a development program longer than planned to ensure it can be produced at a larger scale [too costly?] The Army planning on a future competition for the program, it appears Lockheed pushing strongly with their 50 kW DEIMOS laser, a low-cost spectral beam combination architecture to compete against the incumbent Raytheon laser after Northrop Grumman withdrew after their laser overheated.

www.defensenews.com

SHORAD laser weapon will stay in development phase longer than planned

A 50-kilowatt laser weapon version of the Army’s Stryker-based Short-Range Air Defense system will remain a development program longer than planned.
www.defensenews.com www.defensenews.com
 
Cordy said:
DE M SHORAD slipping a year, Army at AUSA said it needs to continue to learn and continue to mature and will remain a development program longer than planned to ensure it can be produced at a larger scale [too costly?] The Army planning on a future competition for the program, it appears Lockheed pushing strongly with their 50 kW DEIMOS laser, a low-cost spectral beam combination architecture to compete against the incumbent Raytheon laser after Northrop Grumman withdrew after their laser overheated.

www.defensenews.com

SHORAD laser weapon will stay in development phase longer than planned

A 50-kilowatt laser weapon version of the Army’s Stryker-based Short-Range Air Defense system will remain a development program longer than planned.
www.defensenews.com www.defensenews.com
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This has been the plan for some time now with RCCTO transferring the first platoon to the Army in late FY-22, and it basically spending most of that time at WSMR and other ranges to fully flesh out the system and spool it up to its 50kW level. Meanwhile, other performers deliver and test their lasers for the enduring system as the program prepares to transition to PEO M&S in fiscal year 2025. The Army has been quite upfront that unlike MSHORAD which was a collection of mature systems integrated on a new platform (thus allowing the first platoon to be sent to Europe very quickly post delivery), DE-MSHORAD will spend most of its first year at test ranges and training grounds. The Army has even explicitly laid out what it intends to do with the first four systems for the first 4-6 months after taking delivery.

Army has seen some delays with 4-60th expected to have taken delivery of all four by late October instead of late September. The same will be the case for the 300KW HEL. Lockheed just delivered the very first laser source, it will be integrated and will probably spend the first 12-14 months at ranges working its way through the complexities of testing and training. Meanwhile, the program will continue to compete until the PEO takes hold of it and sets up a more defined program of record. Compared to kinetic MSHORAD and IFPC efforts, the DEW counterparts (laser and HP Microwaves) can be expected to be 3-5 years behind in terms of PEO transition and more importantly production scaling. There is a lot more they need to do in terms of testing, doctrine development, and production/supply-chain scaling before they begin showing up in numbers as they aren't relying on decades old core components like MSHORAD and IFPC for example.
 
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On some level I really wonder how would realistic combined arms training work with high power lasers around. It seems like reflections have potentially to randomly blind people and kill sensors at these power levels.

The big question about training is also about whether to prepare for "unrestricted laser warfare" and on what level.

I also wonder about the likelihood of an aerial laser reflector showing at some point for blinding purposes to go with these powerful lasers. Even if one does not intend to use one, one's opponents may not necessarily will go along with it.
 
For the first time in the world, to my humble knowledge, usage of sonic weapons reach courtrooms debates.

Let's hope that France will size this historic opportunity to be the nation that set a high standards against their barbaric usage.

Début novembre 2020, cette quinquagénaire est interpellée par le renseignement intérieur, deux ans après le premier coup de filet antiterroriste mené au sein du groupe d’ultradroite des Barjols. Sur les réseaux sociaux ou messageries cryptées, les enquêteurs relèvent les messages de Delphine Tissot, où elle évoque un projet « d’arme sonique » et se présente comme une membre de la Direction générale de la sécurité intérieure (DGSI).
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At the beginning of November 2020, this fifty-year-old woman was arrested by internal affairs intelligence [the DGSI] , two years after the first anti-terrorist crackdown carried out within the ultra-right wing group, the Barjols. On social networks or encrypted messaging, the investigators note the messages of Delphine Tissot, where she evokes a project of "sonic weapon" and presents herself as a member of the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI).
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www.sudouest.fr

Projet d’attaque contre Macron : Delphine Tissot, la Périgourdine qui proposait un « putsch clé en main » à la barre

L’audience du procès des treize militants, dont cette Périgourdine, proches du groupe d’ultradroite des Barjols, se poursuit
www.sudouest.fr www.sudouest.fr
 
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Sound can also heal
medicalxpress.com

How sound waves trigger immune responses to cancer in mice

When non-invasive sound waves break apart tumors, they trigger an immune response in mice. By breaking down the cell wall "cloak," the treatment exposes cancer cell markers that had previously been hidden from the body's defenses, researchers at the University of Michigan have shown.
medicalxpress.com medicalxpress.com

Laser mirror news
phys.org

Creating 'ghostly mirrors' for high-power lasers

Laser-driven 'mirrors' capable of reflecting or manipulating light have been produced in research led at the University of Strathclyde.
phys.org phys.org
"This is more compact and much more robust and could provide a paradigm shift in high power lasers, which would stimulate new directions of research. The new method presented would also be of wide interest to a diverse community developing and using high power lasers."The transient layered plasma is known as a volume Bragg grating, similar to Bragg structures found in crystals, and is only a few millimeters across. It has the potential to be developed into a variety of plasma-based, high damage-threshold optical elements that could lead to small footprint, ultra-high-power, ultra-short pulse laser systems.
 
Found this, but have no idea when this was awarded:

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Army to develop a novel low-cost wearable sensor to detect exposure to high-power microwave (HPM) weapons.

PSI’s sensor will be lightweight, small, and require minimal maintenance to facilitate widespread distribution allowing definitive identification of invisible HPM weapon usage and support treatment decisions by medical personnel. HPM attack is suspected in the symptoms experienced by U.S. personnel at foreign diplomatic embassies in 2016 & 2017, but could not be confirmed due to the absence of sensing equipment.
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Wearable High-Power Microwave Exposure Sensor - Physical Sciences Inc.

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Army to develop a novel low-cost wearable sensor to detect exposure to high-power microwave (HPM) weapons. PSI’s sensor will be lightweight, small, and require minimal maintenance to facilitate widespread distribution...
www.psicorp.com www.psicorp.com
 
Looks like DE M-SHORAD program continues to slip

Army official: Some DE M-SHORAD money in FY-24 request was reapplied for other modernization priorities because technology was 'not quite ready' | InsideDefense.com

Some money for the Directed Energy Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense system in the Army's fiscal year 2024 budget request was reapplied toward other modernization priorities due to the technology not being ready, the service's deputy assistant secretary for plans, programs and resources said...
insidedefense.com insidedefense.com
 

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