General Atomics, Boeing Partner on High Energy Laser Weapon System

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) and Boeing announced today they are partnering to jointly pursue opportunities for a 100 kW-class scalable to 250 kW-class High Energy Laser (HEL) weapon system to support a variety of air and missile defense applications.

The partnership combines both companies’ expertise in directed energy to build a HEL solution capable of delivering superior, combat-ready protection for the warfighter on an accelerated timeline.

The HEL weapon system will combine GA-EMS’ scalable distributed gain laser technology, HELLi-ion battery systems and integrated thermal management with Boeing’s beam director and precision acquisition, tracking and pointing (ATP) software. In addition to meeting the high-output power, range, adaptability and precision ATP requirements necessary to defeat an increasing array of emerging threats, the HEL weapon system’s compact footprint will offer a reduced logistics footprint and greater configurability for both stand-alone use and integration with a variety of mobile ground, sea and air-based platforms.

“GA-EMS has made significant advancements in developing and demonstrating highly scalable laser technologies to facilitate high output power in smaller, lighter weight packages,” said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. “We look forward to working with Boeing to deliver a laser weapon system with capabilities designed to meet current operational requirements, while providing the flexibility and adaptability to suit emerging platform requirements supporting missions across a multi-domain battlespace.”