"Valkyrie": US Army orders 300-kilowatt laser weapons

Developed by the Army's High Energy Prototype Laser (IFPC-HEL) program and dubbed "Valkyrie," the system can generate pulses of up to 300 kW. It was designed to protect US troops from incoming drones and cruise missiles.

The Valkyrie's power of 300 kW significantly exceeds the power of another laser weapons in the US Army arsenal. By comparison, the Army's DE M-SHORAD short-range air defense system installed on the Stryker, dubbed "Guardian", reaches a power of 50 kW. Although even this was enough to resist the approaching drones, helicopters, and also missiles.

Another representative of this class of weapons is the US Navy high-energy laser with a built-in optical blinder and HELIOS surveillance system, currently installed on board several Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. It generates about 60 kW of power, which is enough to disable small seagoing vessels, but not enough to burn through the nose cones of incoming cruise missiles.

Lockheed Martin will supply the Army with four Valkyrie systems under a new contract. The service plans to have the systems available in the third quarter of 2023, according to an August 2025 report from the Congressional Research Service.

From a practical point of view, the Valkyrie will provide protection to US troops from a variety of airborne threats.

The Valkyrie is loaded into a heavy off-road tactical truck.

Comments

[Mikhail Ivanov]

They all play Star Wars. All their crafts have not yet had any impact on the course of real hostilities.

[Real Pilot]

Ooo! What name...
It smelled like the Reich. And child prodigies

[Diger]

Quote: Mikhail-Ivanov

All their crafts have not yet had any impact on the course of real hostilities.

Lasers or “all crafts” in general?

[Escariot]

Quote: Mikhail-Ivanov

They all play Star Wars. All their crafts have not yet had any impact on the course of real hostilities.

The United States has already conducted trial operation of laser air defense in Iraq. The military were more or less satisfied and work is now continuing.

[quote]

But now on a cross-country truck for the current roads of Amériga.

[bayard]

Quote: devis

But now on a cross-country truck for the current roads of Amériga.

No, now with a power of 300 kW. , which is already quite a lot for a laser. This is enough to reliably shoot down the UAV, and maybe the missile launcher will succeed, although it is not enough to damage the cruise missile or even hit it with a direct hit, it is necessary to knock it off course and prevent even burning debris from hitting the ship. And UAVs are now becoming a very important factor in war, even at sea.
300 kW. , that's already a lot.

[Consultant]

Do you remember, about 4-5 years ago, there was news that for some reason someone transferred technology for the production of either lenses or prisms for lasers from Russia to the USA!? More transmitted.

[rotmistr60]

"Valkyrie"

The Americans already had a project under the same name in the 60s - the XB-70 Valkyrie supersonic high-altitude bomber. They even built two copies for testing. But he sank into oblivion. What I mean is that maybe it shouldn’t be called that?

[Nikolaevich I]

Quote: rotmistr60

Supersonic high-altitude bomber XB-70 Valkyrie. . But he sank into oblivion. What I mean is that maybe it shouldn’t be called that?

Let's call it something closer to this name!? Let it be..."Fury"!

[Boa kaa]

Quote: Nikolaevich I

Let it be..."Fury"!

Damn, why not Baba Yaga??? Well, or the Witch, finally!

[rocket757]

Laser weapons... are probably the weapons of the future.
Powerful energy sources, powerful lasers, all of this is still very large and heavy... other restrictions and nuances are not particularly covered, but they exist!

[Diger]

Quote: rocket757

but they do exist!

As long as they follow their road map

The Chief Director of Directed Energy is responsible for the development and
overseeing the Directed Energy Roadmap, which articulates the Department of Defense's goal of dominating military applications in every mission and area where they provide an advantage." According to OUSD (R&E), the current roadmap outlines the Department of Defense's plans to increase the power of HEL weapons from approximately 150 kilowatts (kW) currently possible to approximately 300 kW by fiscal year 2023“ with the goal of achieving class 500 kW in reduced size and weight by FY2025, as well as to further reduce size and weight and increase power to MW level by 2026.

/Dr. Jim Trebes October 21, 2020.

[Nikolaevich I]

"Why should we build a house? Let's draw and live!" Back in the USSR, they planned to launch an MHD generator based on a turbojet engine into production (Either they built one prototype, or they didn’t finish it... due to the sudden death of the Union!) To this MHD generator they would add “batteries” of super ionistors ,, ... and a laser “gun” with pulsed “shots” of picosecond duration ... and you will be a “wunderwaffle”!
By the way, why is everyone talking about lasers? What about an electromagnetic gun that shoots plasma “clumps”? We haven't heard anything about this miracle weapon for a long time!

[Diger]

Aerodrome power source (generator). To maintain and maintain aircraft readiness. What does the SG marking mean?

You could also take a nitrogen filling cart (designed to produce nitrogen gas)

In any case, it has nothing to do with the 300 kW laser.
It will be something like this

Quote: Khamin Mikhail

The Valkyrie is loaded into a heavy off-road tactical truck.

[voyaka uh]

The bottom photo shows the American-Israeli project.
He was already working in 2000.
From a salvo of 10 rockets, Grad managed to burn through (shoot down) 6
being tested in the USA.
The system was rejected by the Israeli army
in favor of the missile system - Iron Dome,
which had greater operational capabilities
and flexibility of application.

[Diger]

Quote: voyaka uh

The bottom photo shows the American-Israeli project.

Quote from Digger

About a will

I can’t say anything about Israel and “rejected”

Quote: voyaka uh

in favor of the missile system - Iron Dome,
which had greater operational capabilities

I don’t know about “big ones”, but it’s stupid.
Shooting down an expensive RS missile system made from a water pipe...and also “flexibility of use.
If the LCD computer in a split second calculates the trajectory of the RS and the location of the fall (dangerous or not), then in the same split second it determines the point of the starting battery, transmits the target and the positional area is destroyed to zero, along with the PU, combat crew and a penny supply of RS a shot from a howitzer / MLRS / or a slightly more expensive OTR / or a comparable airstrike from an aircraft.
The LCD hits the ants, in the hope that the ants will not be able to be born in the anthill in sufficient numbers...

[svarog77]

Judging by the photo, he will get stuck in the first good puddle

[TermNachTer]

If it has 300 kW of power output, how much should the power supply provide? Do you need a small power plant?))))

[Diger]

Quote: TermNachTER

If it has 300 kW of power output, how much should the power supply provide? Do you need a small power plant?))))

This is not the power consumed (of the laser), but the power in the beam.
If not powered from the line, then 10-15 shots, then a break.

The actual capabilities of a laser are determined not by the power as such, but by the level of radiation concentration - i.e. the ability of the “gun” to create not just a powerful, but also a narrowly directed beam and the time of irradiation with this beam

Short (picosecond) laser pulses are indispensable when studying fast processes. An extremely high peak power (up to several GW) can be developed in a pulse, which is equal to the power of several nuclear power plant units of a million kW each. In this case, the radiation can be concentrated in a narrow cone. Such beams make it possible, for example, to “weld” the retina to the fundus of the eye.

Fiber lasers, which Raytheon has adapted for military applications, already have an efficiency of about 30%. For firearms - 20-40%. At the same time, the efficiency of the still smaller, but steadily increasing in power solid-state systems with semiconductor pumping is already more than 50% and from development to development is approaching its physical limit close to 85%.

“NEMTT - NEMTT A3” even in the basic configuration has a 350 kW electric generator capable of providing up to 200 kW of “exported” power. When increasing engine power to 505 hp. A3 can provide 400 kW to the “external” consumer. The battery is a nice addition 1,5 MJ capacitors.

General Atomic's new product is a thermal energy accumulator specially designed for cooling lasers. The 35 kg module can absorb 230 kW, in which case the heat melts the energy-intensive wax-like material. As a result, the “HELLADS” mode provides interception of the specified power of continuous radiation for two minutes, followed by a thirty-second break.

[orionvitt]

Well, if Lockheed Martin got down to business, then it’s understandable. It’s not so much a matter as cutting up the billion-dollar budgets of the Pentagon, and there are many of them out there. We remember the conversations about the “terrible and terrible” railgun, all sorts of Zumvolts, the same F-35, which they won’t give any sense to, I’m generally silent about hyper sound. But the guys try, ask for money and so far they give it to them. But there are no budgets that the Pentagon, together with the American military-industrial complex, would not cut up.

[seamen2]

laser weapons are still far from the hyperboloid of engineer Garin. but this is just the beginning of the journey. remember what the first tanks were like. and what they have become over time. the same thing and the first clumsy battleships eventually turned into the fast battleships Iowa. and the laser will go this way.

[Petr_Koldunov]

Again cut for a non-existent prodigy?
The name of the contractor speaks for itself. Lockheed means "to throw a sucker."