31 results about "Directed-energy weapon" patented technology

The present invention relates to a laser guided and powered directed energy weapon that combines two different lasers to accurately and efficiently deliver a high energy electromagnetic pulse (EMP) to a target at long range. The method uses a high energy laser pulse with relatively long pulse duration focused in air to create a plasma ball which emits an intense EMP. Typically the long pulse duration of high energy lasers would severely limit focal accuracy and effective range because of air pressure variations and pollutants in the atmosphere. However the present invention uses a second ultrafast laser to create a long thin optical plasma filament between the variable location of the plasma ball and the target to act as a stable electrical connection or conducting wire. Consequently EMP can be efficiently channeled to the target via the optical filament, thereby dramatically increasing potential accuracy, range and energy delivery efficiency.

Composite material, devices incorporating the composite material and methods of forming the composite material are provided. The composite material includes interstitial material that has at least one of a select relative permittivity property value and a select relative permeability property value. The composite material further includes inclusion material within the interstitial material. The inclusion material has at least one of a select relative permeability property value and a select relative permittivity property value. The select relative permeability and permittivity property values of the interstitial and the inclusion materials are selected so that the effective intrinsic impedance of the interstitial and the inclusion material match the intrinsic impedance of air. Devices made from the composite include metamaterial and / or metamaterial-inspired (e.g. near-field LC-type parasitic) substrates and / or lenses, front-end protection, stealth absorbers, filters and mixers. Beyond the intrinsic, applications include miniature antenna and antenna arrays, directed energy weapons, EMI filters, RF and optical circuit components, among others.

An energy storage arrangement wherein electrical charge is stored in capacitor elements dispersed throughout, for example, surface structural components of an aircraft. The electrical capacitor elements may involve dielectric material-separated electrical plates comprising the aircraft skin or preferably may involve numerous wire-like cylindrical capacitor elements dispersed within the weaving of the hardened fabric materials used to fabricate the aircraft. Other elements of the aircraft including internal structure and divider members may also be included in the energy storage function. Pulsed use of the stored energy in, for example, directed energy weapons devices are a contemplated application of the invention. The invention may be viewed as a combined employment of aircraft components in both structural and energy storing functions thus enabling a reduction in aircraft payload utilization and space consumption.

A network connects stations in a distributed physics based simulation system. When the simulation detects that a weapon, especially a missile or directed energy beam, is engaging a target vehicle, one physics station determines damage status of the target vehicle. The detonation or strike of the weapon is applied to a model of the vehicle composed of pieces each made up of a number of parts. Where the damage to a piece of the vehicle exceeds a predetermined threshold, the piece is removed from the vehicle, and where a predetermined maximum damage is reached for the vehicle, the vehicle is considered destroyed. The damage assessment from the weapon is made using raytracing in a physics engine that is also used to control movement of virtual objects in the simulation according to rules of physics of the physics engine.

An active retrodirective antenna array is provisioned with a virtual beacon for use with uncooperative targets. An RF pilot signal is imposed onto an optical carrier beam and directed at a target. The scattered optical carrier beam is optically detected by a plurality of the retrodirective array nodes to extract the RF pilot signal. Each recovered RF pilot-signal is phase-conjugated with a phase reference signal, amplified and retransmitted towards the target where the RF beams add-in phase at the virtual beacon. The array may be used to complete an RF communication link with the target, to transfer microwave power from orbiting solar power stations to a target or as a directed energy weapon to prosecute the target.

Methods, apparatus, and computer readable media for designing an effective and efficient directed energy weapon system. A method for designing a directed energy weapons system may include modeling an environment and postulating a directed energy weapons system deployment. The capability of the postulated directed energy weapon system deployment to defend a target aircraft against a missile threat within the environment may then be simulated. The postulated directed energy weapon system deployment may be iteratively improved based on simulation results.

A turbogenerator having a gas turbine engine powering generator and a cooling system and an annular heat exchanger powered by a fan disposed across an outer fan duct of the engine. Fan variable inlet and outlet guide vanes may be used to vary power between the fan and the generator which are drivenly connected to a low pressure turbine. Inner and outer portions separated by a rotating shroud of the fan are disposed in annular inner and outer fan ducts respectively. A directed energy weapon may be powered by the generator and cooled by the cooling system. A refrigeration apparatus may be operably disposed between the annular heat exchanger and the directed energy weapon for cooling the directed energy weapon and conditioning power electronics for the weapon. The refrigeration apparatus may include a vapor cycle cooling system and a cold storage containing a phase change material.

A turbogenerator having a gas turbine engine powering generator and a cooling system and an annular heat exchanger powered by a fan disposed across an outer fan duct of the engine. Fan variable inlet and outlet guide vanes may be used to vary power between the fan and the generator which are drivenly connected to a low pressure turbine. Inner and outer portions separated by a rotating shroud of the fan are disposed in annular inner and outer fan ducts respectively. A directed energy weapon may be powered by the generator and cooled by the cooling system. A refrigeration apparatus may be operably disposed between the annular heat exchanger and the directed energy weapon for cooling the directed energy weapon and conditioning power electronics for the weapon. The refrigeration apparatus may include a vapor cycle cooling system and a cold storage containing a phase change material.

A vanadium dioxide front-end advanced shutter device. The electronic shutter device is designed to protect receiver front-ends and other sensitive circuits from HPM pulse events such as HPM weapons, directed energy weapons, or EMPs. The shutter incorporates a transition material such as thin-film vanadium oxide (VOX) materials that exhibit a dramatic change in resistivity as their temperature is varied over a narrow range near a known critical temperature. A high-energy pulse causes ohmic heating in the shutter device, resulting in a state change in the VOX material when the critical temperature is exceeded. During the state change the VOX material transitions from an insulating state (high resistance) to a reflective state (low resistance). In the insulating state, the shutter device transmits the majority of the signal. In the reflective state, most of the signal is reflected and prevented from passing into electronics on the output side of the shutter device.

Apparatus for testing a conducted energy weapon includes analyzer to produce characteristic signals representative of characteristics of electrical current pulses delivered by the weapon into a resistive load when the weapon is discharged. Risk estimation device responsive to the characteristic signals produces a risk estimate representative of a risk of injury to a targeted subject due to electrical stimulation, or alternatively representative of a risk of failure to incapacitate the targeted subject. Indicator device responsive to the risk estimate indicates the risk of injury, or alternatively the risk of failure to incapacitate, and warns the user of the apparatus when the risk exceeds a predetermined threshold.

A directed energy weapon includes a number of laser units, each including a fiber laser generating an output beam with a power of at least 1 kW from a fiber, an objective lens arrangement for focusing the output beam into a focused beam directed towards a target, and a fine adjustment mechanism fir adjusting a direction of the focused beam. A beam deflector arrangement is deployed to deflect a portion of the focused beam from each laser unit as a deflected beam in a direction in predefined relation to a direction of the focused beam. An angle sensing unit generates an output indicative of a current direction of said deflected beam for each of said laser units. A controller actuates the fine adjustment mechanisms based on the output from the angle sensing unit to maintain a desired relative alignment between directions of the focused beams.

Composite material, devices incorporating the composite material and methods of forming the composite material are provided. The composite material includes interstitial material that has at least one of a select relative permittivity property value and a select relative permeability property value. The composite material further includes inclusion material within the interstitial material. The inclusion material has at least one of a select relative permeability property value and a select relative permittivity property value. The select relative permeability and permittivity property values of the interstitial and the inclusion materials are selected so that the effective intrinsic impedance of the interstitial and the inclusion material match the intrinsic impedance of air. Devices made from the composite include metamaterial and / or metamaterial-inspired (e.g. near-field LC-type parasitic) substrates and / or lenses, front-end protection, stealth absorbers, filters and mixers. Beyond the intrinsic, applications include miniature antenna and antenna arrays, directed energy weapons, EMI filters, RF and optical circuit components, among others.

An electrical power generation system for a directed energy weapon includes a fuel pump configured to disperse a liquid fuel. Also included is an oxidizer pump configured to disperse a liquid oxidant. Further included is a combustor fluidly coupled to the fuel pump and the oxidizer pump to receive the liquid fuel and the liquid oxidant for combustion therein to form a combustion mixture. Yet further included is a turbine fluidly coupled to the combustor to receive the combustion mixture to generate mechanical energy. Also included is a generator operatively coupled to a rotor shaft of the turbine to convert the mechanical energy to electrical power for the directed energy weapon.

A disruptive media dispersal system for aircraft which absorbs and scatters directed energy weapon beams such as tracking lasers and high energy lasers (HELs) is disclosed. The system may include laser detectors, laser beam propagation disruptive media and a dispersal system. When attacked by a directed energy weapon such as a laser, the laser detector system or vehicle operator deploys the disruptive media. The disruptive media is released by a feeder and dispersal system into the air in the path of the tracking and / or HEL weapon. For example, the dispersal system may be located onboard the aircraft near the front of the fuselage.

A beam directing telescope for use in a directed energy weapons system that employs active telescope component alignment and that includes a primary mirror and a secondary mirror. The secondary mirror includes a first surface having a dichroic coating that reflects and directs a high energy laser beam to the primary mirror, reflects a portion of the reference beams and passes a portion of the reference beams that are focused by a second surface of the secondary mirror. A position sensing detector (PSD) is positioned relative to the secondary mirror such that the reference beams are focused as a spot on the PSD, where the PSD senses a position of the reference beams. An actuator changes the orientation of the secondary mirror to an alignment position if the position of the focused spots on the PSD is not the position for a desired alignment of the mirrors.

An active retrodirective antenna array is provisioned with a virtual beacon for use with uncooperative targets. An RF pilot signal is imposed onto an optical carrier beam and directed at a target. The scattered optical carrier beam is optically detected by a plurality of the retrodirective array nodes to extract the RF pilot signal. Each recovered RF pilot-signal is phase-conjugated with a phase reference signal, amplified and retransmitted towards the target where the RF beams add-in phase at the virtual beacon. The array may be used to complete an RF communication link with the target, to transfer microwave power from orbiting solar power stations to a target or as a directed energy weapon to prosecute the target.

A vanadium dioxide front-end advanced shutter device. The electronic shutter device is designed to protect receiver front-ends and other sensitive circuits from HPM pulse events such as HPM weapons, directed energy weapons, or EMPs. The shutter incorporates a transition material such as thin-film vanadium oxide (VOX) materials that exhibit a dramatic change in resistivity as their temperature is varied over a narrow range near a known critical temperature. A high-energy pulse causes ohmic heating in the shutter device, resulting in a state change in the VOX material when the critical temperature is exceeded. During the state change the VOX material transitions from an insulating state (high resistance) to a reflective state (low resistance). In the insulating state, the shutter device transmits the majority of the signal. In the reflective state, most of the signal is reflected and prevented from passing into electronics on the output side of the shutter device.

A disruptive media dispersal system for aircraft which absorbs and scatters directed energy weapon beams such as tracking lasers and high energy lasers (HELs) is disclosed. The system may include laser detectors, laser beam propagation disruptive media and a dispersal system. When attacked by a directed energy weapon such as a laser, the laser detector system or vehicle operator deploys the disruptive media. The disruptive media is released by a feeder and dispersal system into the air in the path of the tracking and / or HEL weapon. For example, the dispersal system may be located onboard the aircraft near the front of the fuselage.

The invention relates to a locking phase and aperture filling device of a two-dimensional optical fiber laser array, which consists of a holophote, a two-dimensional single-mode optical fiber array, a pumping source, a phase compensating plate and a partially reflecting / outputting mirror, wherein the holophote, the partially reflecting / outputting mirror and the holophote, the partially reflecting / outputting mirror as well as the two-dimensional single-mode optical fiber array and the phase compensating plate which are positioned in the partially reflecting / outputting mirror satisfy the Talbot self-imaging condition to form a Lau effect resonant cavity. The invention has the advantages of simple structure, stable and reliable performance, continuous output with high power and the like, is particularly suitable for the fields of laser radar, satellite laser communication, directed energy weapon and other fields, and has actual significance for developing a compact and light laser system with high beam quality and high power.

Methods, apparatus, and computer readable media for designing an effective and efficient directed energy weapon system. A method for designing a directed energy weapons system may include modeling an environment and postulating a directed energy weapons system deployment. The capability of the postulated directed energy weapon system deployment to defend a target aircraft against a missile threat within the environment may then be simulated. The postulated directed energy weapon system deployment may be iteratively improved based on simulation results.

Disclosed are systems and methods of flexibly cooling thermal loads by providing a complex compound system for burst mode cooling, a vapor compression system for ancillary cooling, and a thermal storage system for helping efficiently maintain and cool a thermal load such as a directed energy weapon system.

A DE energy weapon and tracking system includes a passive millimeter wave (PmmW) imaging receiver on a common gimbaled telescope to sense natural electromagnetic radiation from a mmW scene. The PmmW imaging receiver operates in a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum distinct from the IR bands associated with thermal blooming or the HEL laser. In the case of a HPM source, the reflected energy is either in a different RF band and / or of diminished amplitude such as to not interfere with operation of the PmmW imaging receiver. Although lower resolution than traditional optical imaging, PmmW imaging provides a viable alternative for target tracking when the DE weapon is actively prosecuting the target and provides additional tracking information when the DE weapon is not engaged.

A flat-aperture waveguide sidewall-emitting antenna in a compact low-profile configuration and with the capability of radiating a beam of extremely high-power microwave (HPM) pulses in a directional manner is provided. High-power microwave antennas are essential technologies to microwave-based directed energy weapons (DEW). The flat-aperture waveguide sidewall-emitting antenna is especially well-suited to high-power microwave operation because of its relatively large aperture, which distributes the output power evenly over a large area, thus reducing the risk of microwave-induced air-breakdown or surface-breakdown that would other wise impede proper operation and degrade output beam formation.

Disclosed are systems and methods of heating and cooling a laser system by providing a vapor compression system having a plurality of compressors. A control system controls the activity of each compressor and activates and manages the speed of each compressor to efficiently provide cooling and heating of the laser system.

A mesh sensor system for measuring the performance of directed energy weapons at a target has been developed. The mesh sensor system measures the laser irradiance and the thermal response on the target. The system includes a plurality of sensors arranged on the target surface and a plurality connecting lines that connect with the sensors to provide power and retrieve data from the sensors.

Described herein is a thermal management system and methodology for a directed energy weapon on an aircraft. The thermal management system includes an evaporator in thermal communication with the directed energy weapon and operatively configured to cool the directed energy weapon by evaporating a refrigerant therein. The thermal management system also includes a refrigerant storage tank in fluid communication with the evaporator and a pump in fluid communication with the refrigerant storage tank and the evaporator configured to pump substantially liquid refrigerant to the evaporator.

Disclosed are systems and methods of flexibly cooling thermal loads by providing a thermal energy storage cooling system for burst mode cooling and a vapor compression system for additional and ancillary cooling to efficiently maintain and cool a thermal load such as from a directed energy weapon system.

A network connects stations in a distributed physics based simulation system. When the simulation detects that a weapon, especially a missile or directed energy beam, is engaging a target vehicle, one physics station determines damage status of the target vehicle. The detonation or strike of the weapon is applied to a model of the vehicle composed of pieces each made up of a number of parts. Where the damage to a piece of the vehicle exceeds a predetermined threshold, the piece is removed from the vehicle, and where a predetermined maximum damage is reached for the vehicle, the vehicle is considered destroyed. The damage assessment from the weapon is made using raytracing in a physics engine that is also used to control movement of virtual objects in the simulation according to rules of physics of the physics engine.

The invention discloses a space directed energy reflection countermeasure method based on a mirror, which comprises the following steps: installing a camera component and a directed energy reflection component on a satellite platform; using the camera component to detect enemy directed energy weapons in space, and obtaining enemy Real-time image of directional directed energy weapons; based on the real-time images of enemy directed energy weapons, the world coordinates of enemy directed energy weapons are obtained, and the posture of directed energy reflection components is adjusted according to the world coordinates of enemy directed energy weapons to make it reflect the enemy Directed Energy Weapons A directed energy wave emitted by a directed energy weapon. By installing the directed energy reflection component on the satellite platform, and adjusting the attitude of the directed energy reflection component according to the detected world coordinates of the enemy’s directed energy weapon, so that it can reflect the directed energy wave emitted by the enemy’s directed energy weapon. The characteristics of directed energy weapons can use the principle of optical reflection to achieve active defense against enemy directed energy weapons in close-in confrontation in space.