Compact Beam Director for Submarine-based High Energy Laser (HEL)

Optical Physics Company (OPC) designed a compact beam director for a submarine based high energy laser (HEL) during the first phase of this project. The OPC beam director achieves a 12 inch aperture having four times the brightness and twice the effective range of conventional beam director designs in the same volume. Moreover, it is designed to thoroughly suppress local jitter and wavefront error, including thermal blooming. All of the key drivers for the beam director (mechanical design of the structure and bearings, operation through turbulence, haze and thermal blooming, and aimpoint selection and maintenance through haze) were addressed by the Phase I base program. The project is now ready to move onto Phase I Option during which a PDR-level design of a subscale prototype beam director will be formulated. During the Phase II Base program, OPC will complete the final design of this prototype and conduct selected design verification tests for risk reduction. OPC will also purchase/assemble all components and modules including software coding. During the Phase II Option, the final integration and testing will be performed. The beam director prototype can be delivered to the government or used in subsequent efforts.