Indian Laser and Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) Thread

Prashant12

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India gets a step closer to laser weaponry as DRDO successfully tests laser system



NEW DELHI: In a leap towards building laser weapons capability, India has made a breakthrough in its efforts to develop directed energy weapons, or DEWs, that can potentially end future wars before they begin.

It’s not exactly what we saw in Star Wars films or Flash Gordon comics decades ago, but DEWs such as high powered lasers can destroy enemy missiles, aircraft and advanced weaponry based on electronic circuitry.

India’s primary defence research organisation Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) recently conducted a successful test of a laser system mounted on a truck, and plans are now afoot to create a more powerful laser with a longer range, people familiar with the development told ET.

Private companies such as Kalyani Group and Rolls-Royce are also looking to develop or build DEWs in the country. DEWs are weapons that produce a beam of concentrated electromagnetic energy. There are mainly two types of DEWs: high powered lasers and microwaves. DEWs are anti-personnel as they can cause intolerable burning of an area in the body and blindness, and anti-material as it can be used to destroy missiles, ships, UAVs and fry circuitry of equipment deployed in a battlefield.

While information is not available on whether India is developing microwave weapons, DRDO tested a 1KW laser weapon system mounted on a truck at Chitradurga in Karnataka towards August end. “The laser beam hit a target located 250 metres away,” an official said. “It took 36 seconds for it to make a hole in the metal sheet.” The test was conducted in the presence of then defence minister Arun Jaitley, the person said.

The next step is to test a higher powered laser, 2KW, mounted on the truck against a metal sheet located at a distance of 1 km. Two DRDO laboratories — Centre for High Energy Systems and Sciences (CHESS) and Laser Science & Technology Centre (LASTEC) — are currently working on developing the source for generating the laser, officials said. At present, the source of the laser, which is the “heart of the system”, is imported from Germany.





Other challenges include developing a cooling mechanism for the system that heats up when the laser beam is fired, ensuring a focused beam towards a distant target and optoelectronics, or optronics, involving lenses to create that focus, they said. “The weapon is not ready yet and it will take years for it to happen,” said an official. DRDO did not officially respond to a questionnaire on the subject sent by ET to it as of press time Wednesday.

Private companies too are looking to enter DEW space. A senior official at Kalyani Group said Kalyani Centre for Technology and Innovation is in the “initial stages” of developing DEWs. “We are identifying two segments: ‘lethality’ to kill and ‘survivability’ aimed at destroying incoming missiles,” the person told ET. “We will initially be working on the latter and are setting up a lab in Pune.”

Rolls-Royce’s global strategic marketing director Ben Story, in a conversation with ET had recently said that there are “conversations” happening between the company and India on DEWs.

A release by Press Information Bureau back in December 2013 had confirmed that DRDO’s CHESS and LASTEC were researching on DEWs and laser technology, respectively. A 2015 DRDO bulletin titled ‘Technology Focus’ stated that LASTEC with the help of a collaborator had developed a unit of 1kW ‘single mode fibre laser’ and work was on for developing 5kW and 9kW fibre laser sources.

LASTEC has also developed a 10kW Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) and is working on developing a 30-100 kW vehicle-mounted COIL system, sources said.


https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...y-tests-laser-system/articleshow/61954646.cms
 

porky_kicker

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India gets a step closer to laser weaponry as DRDO successfully tests laser system



NEW DELHI: In a leap towards building laser weapons capability, India has made a breakthrough in its efforts to develop directed energy weapons, or DEWs, that can potentially end future wars before they begin.

It’s not exactly what we saw in Star Wars films or Flash Gordon comics decades ago, but DEWs such as high powered lasers can destroy enemy missiles, aircraft and advanced weaponry based on electronic circuitry.

India’s primary defence research organisation Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) recently conducted a successful test of a laser system mounted on a truck, and plans are now afoot to create a more powerful laser with a longer range, people familiar with the development told ET.

Private companies such as Kalyani Group and Rolls-Royce are also looking to develop or build DEWs in the country. DEWs are weapons that produce a beam of concentrated electromagnetic energy. There are mainly two types of DEWs: high powered lasers and microwaves. DEWs are anti-personnel as they can cause intolerable burning of an area in the body and blindness, and anti-material as it can be used to destroy missiles, ships, UAVs and fry circuitry of equipment deployed in a battlefield.

While information is not available on whether India is developing microwave weapons, DRDO tested a 1KW laser weapon system mounted on a truck at Chitradurga in Karnataka towards August end. “The laser beam hit a target located 250 metres away,” an official said. “It took 36 seconds for it to make a hole in the metal sheet.” The test was conducted in the presence of then defence minister Arun Jaitley, the person said.

The next step is to test a higher powered laser, 2KW, mounted on the truck against a metal sheet located at a distance of 1 km. Two DRDO laboratories — Centre for High Energy Systems and Sciences (CHESS) and Laser Science & Technology Centre (LASTEC) — are currently working on developing the source for generating the laser, officials said. At present, the source of the laser, which is the “heart of the system”, is imported from Germany.

Other challenges include developing a cooling mechanism for the system that heats up when the laser beam is fired, ensuring a focused beam towards a distant target and optoelectronics, or optronics, involving lenses to create that focus, they said. “The weapon is not ready yet and it will take years for it to happen,” said an official. DRDO did not officially respond to a questionnaire on the subject sent by ET to it as of press time Wednesday.

Private companies too are looking to enter DEW space. A senior official at Kalyani Group said Kalyani Centre for Technology and Innovation is in the “initial stages” of developing DEWs. “We are identifying two segments: ‘lethality’ to kill and ‘survivability’ aimed at destroying incoming missiles,” the person told ET. “We will initially be working on the latter and are setting up a lab in Pune.”

Rolls-Royce’s global strategic marketing director Ben Story, in a conversation with ET had recently said that there are “conversations” happening between the company and India on DEWs.

A release by Press Information Bureau back in December 2013 had confirmed that DRDO’s CHESS and LASTEC were researching on DEWs and laser technology, respectively. A 2015 DRDO bulletin titled ‘Technology Focus’ stated that LASTEC with the help of a collaborator had developed a unit of 1kW ‘single mode fibre laser’ and work was on for developing 5kW and 9kW fibre laser sources.

LASTEC has also developed a 10kW Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) and is working on developing a 30-100 kW vehicle-mounted COIL system, sources said.


https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...y-tests-laser-system/articleshow/61954646.cms
i believe this one was tested ,as LASTEC ADITYA was a technology demonstrator for proving beam control technology

DRDO_conceptualised_DEW.jpg
 

Indx TechStyle

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Indian Army announces new land warfare doctrine
The Indian Army (IA) is seeking to create integrated battle groups (IBGs), expand its cyber warfare capabilities, and induct energy-directed weapons as well as artificial intelligence-based systems to manage multiple security challenges, the service announced in its Land Warfare Doctrine-2018.
 

FOXBAT ALOK

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What Are India’s Plans for Directed Energy Weapons?

SOURCE :DEFENCE VIEW

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India’s Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) announced earlier this month that it plans to develop directed energy weapons (DEWs) using high-energy lasers and microwaves. DEWs are emerging military technologies that are yet to be deployed by any military force but are seen as critical in future warfare. According to media reports, India has developed a national plan with short, medium and long term goals to develop a series of DEW variants with up to 100 kilowatts of power. This is being planned in a collaborative mode, to eventually partner with and benefit from the domestic private sector. While India is still in the early stages of developing this technology and nowhere near possessing an operational capability, advances in such technologies will have implications for both national and regional security.





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Development of DEWs is seen as particularly important in the context of India’s worsening security environment, especially its ties with China. The continuing military confrontation in eastern Ladakh is a reminder of the challenges that China poses to India. Beijing’s growing military power, including in space, cyber and electronic warfare domains, can inflict significant damage on its adversaries, including India. China is also developing DEW technologies. Indeed, India is probably developing its own DEWs as a response.

Delivering the 12th annual Air Chief Marshal L.M. Katre memorial lecture in August 2019, Dr. G. Satheesh Reddy, the head of the DRDO said, “DEWs are extremely important today. The world is moving towards them. In the country too, we are doing a lot of experiments. We have been working in this area for the past three to four years to develop 10-kW and 20-kW [weapons].” In August 2017, the DRDO is reported to have tested a 1-kilowatt laser weapon at Chitradurga in the South Indian state of Karnataka, on a target 250 meters away. Then Defense Minister Arun Jaitley is believed to have been present for the test. This is far from being a usable weapon, of course: in addition to the limited distance of the target, the laser also reportedly took 36 seconds to create a hole on the target metal sheet. The Centre for High Energy Systems and Sciences and Laser Science & Technology Centre, two DRDO laboratories, are working on the project.


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In 2018, while responding to a question in the Indian Parliament on the DRDO’s major technological developments, the minister of state for defense stated that the DRDO has developed a vehicle-mounted high-power laser-directed energy system for use against drones. The anti-drone system will supposedly be eventually manufactured in large quantities through the involvement of the Indian private sector. Two models have been developed in this regard: the first can be fielded on a trailer and has a 10-kilowatt laser to target aerial targets within a 2-kilometer range, whereas the second is believed to be a compact tripod-mounted system, mounted with a 2-kilowatt laser designed to operate at a rage of 1 kilometer. Officials cited in one report claim that these have been displayed to the armed forces and other relevant agencies and note that these are capable of taking out mini-drones by jamming the command and control systems or by damaging the on-board electronic systems. This system is capable of detecting and jamming micro-drones to a distance of up to 3 kilometers and engaging a target within a range of 1-1.25 kilometers.

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India is also reported to have developed a system called KALI, or “kilo ampere linear injector,” a linear electron accelerator for targeting long-range missiles. Once a missile launch is detected, KALI is supposed to “quickly emit powerful pulses of Relativistic Electrons Beams (REB)” that can damage electronic systems on-board. KALI has been developed by the DRDO and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). It was first proposed in 1985 by the then-BARC Director Dr. R. Chidambaram. Work on the project is reported to have begun in 1989. At a BARC Foundation Day speech in 2004, the BARC director said that a “high power pulse electron accelerator KALI-5000 has been commissioned at an energy of 650 keV and an electron beam power of 40 GW. High power microwaves having frequency in the range of 3-5 GHz and power 1-2 GW have been generated.” Despite this acknowledgement of the existence of such a system, there is very little information in the public domain. The government has not divulged any information, even in parliament. For instance, more than a decade later, in 2015, while responding to a question in parliament as to whether there are any plans to induct KALI 5000 in the Indian military, Defense Minister Manohar Parikkar simply stated, “The desired information is sensitive in nature and its disclosure is not in the interest of national security.”

While details are sketchy, the technological roadmaps for the next decade developed by the Indian defense establishment in 2013 and 2018 articulated some of the military’s requirements. Media reports said that according to Phase I of the roadmap,the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force require a minimum of 20 “tactical high-energy laser systems” that are capable of destroying “small aerial targets” and electronic warfare systems at a range of 6-8 kilometers. In Phase II, the demand is to have laser systems that have a range of over 20 kilometers to target “soft-skinned” vehicles and forces from both land and air.

But India’s DEW technological capabilities are still in the nascent stage, and are not yet comparable to the more powerful systems of countries like the U.S., Russia and China. While the effectiveness of these weapons remains unknown because of the lack of open source information, it is quite likely that these will mature in the coming decade.

Of course, these systems bring their own advantages and disadvantages. Laser weapons, for instance, have the capability to be focused precisely, which allows for effective targeting. On the other hand, though microwaves cannot be aimed like lasers, their ability to damage electronic systems without causing casualties opens up other options. In fact, a report produced by the U.S. Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) details many illustrative scenarios as to how these weapon systems could be effectively used in contactless warfare in the future.

Indian security analysts argue that the country could be vulnerable as technology advances in India’s neighbourhood. They also recommend that India consider the possibility of developing an offensive capability in this regard. Given the intensifying security dynamics in the Indo-Pacific and beyond, all the major powers including India are likely to accelerate the pursuit of these technologies.
 

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