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Heinrich Headlines National Directed Energy Summit
“The added value of directed energy weapon systems can no longer be ignored. Cost-effectiveness, lethality, infinite magazine capacity, and precision targeting are all attributes that the military seeks and needs in its weapon systems.”
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Navy Pushing for New Directed-Energy System, but Won’t Discuss Specifics
Adm. John Richardson, speaking at the Directed Energy Summit in Washington March 29, spoke glowingly of the potential for directed-energy technology, telling the audience that, from his "layman's assessment, there are no major technology obstacles standing in the way of getting this thing out." He said he had recently travelled to companies and warfare centers working on directed-energy technologies. "I'm personally pushing on this myself," Richardson said. "We're committed and moving forward as fast as we can." But the admiral declined to answer questions about the power of the envisioned system, as well as when and where the Navy aims to first deploy the weapon. Richardson said he will be "far more reluctant to talk about things like that. People are listening."
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Army Plans to Expand Directed-Energy Efforts
Maj. Gen. William Hix, director of strategy, plans and policy in the office of the deputy chief of staff (G-3/5/7), said at the Directed Energy Summit March 29 in Washington that some of those directed-energy challenges include improving the mobility, size, weight, power, all-weather capability, and the ability to complement other systems. "There are also some other opportunities out there . . . communications, operations in space, and perhaps, in the deeper future, direct fire," he said.
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Navy Officials No Longer Talking Publicly About Laser Weapon Systems
As the U.S. military faces increased competition from near-peer competitors, the chief of naval operations said March 29 he would start keeping details of some of the Navy’s most high profile technology programs closer to the vest. One example is laser technology, which will be critical for the service, Adm. John Richardson said during a Booz Allen Hamilton-hosted summit focusing on directed energy in Washington, D.C. “The implications of getting directed energy out on the field … will be transformational” for the service, he said. The Navy has already deployed the Laser Weapon System, or LaWS, a 30-kilowatt system, on the USS Ponce.
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Senator Calls for New Fund to Speed up Laser Demonstrations
“We cannot keep waiting to test prototypes or validate new weapons sitting in labs while our adversaries are testing relentlessly,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said at the Directed Energy Summit, hosted by Booz Allen Hamilton.
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CNO Warns Continuing Spending Resolutions Limit U.S. Military
The U.S. is lacking a sense of urgency, he said, after decades of overconfidence when it comes to quickly innovating and besting the technology of near-peer competitors, which have been investing and studying U.S. weaknesses. And budgetary uncertainty created by a string of continuing resolutions only adds to the U.S. disadvantage, he said. “Try winning the mile race when you spot your competition a lap. You can do that, but you have to be really, really fast,” Richardson said at Booz Allen Hamilton’s annual Directed Energy Summit. “We just aren’t. We’re far too bureaucratic.”