Homes destroyed by a wildfire are seen from an aerial view in the Keswick neighborhood of Redding, Calif., Friday, Aug. 10, 2018. Fire crews have made progress against the biggest blaze in California history but officials say the fire won't be fully contained until September. (AP Photo/Michael Burke)
One of the world’s largest aerospace and defence contactors have posted on social media about their new directed energy laser weapon.
The multi-billion dollar group posts online. Photo: SOP
The military-industrial-complex.. on Instagram.
NORTHROP BRAGS
It is the vision of all well-known sci-fi fantasies: weapons firing lasers that can vaporise their targets into thin air, usually held by the scheming villain looking to take over the world.
But what most people don’t know is..
It’s also a military technology that taxpayers across the world are paying for in the real world today.
Directed energy research, which was once hidden behind closed doors only to be ridiculed as ‘conspiracy theory’, is now coming to the light in the mainstream, with news reports.. and even Instagram posts!
Yes, that’s just what multi-billion dollar aerospace and defence contactor Northrop Grumman done this week. They took to their Instagram page to brag about their directed energy capabilities:
Showcasing an artistic rendition of a “high energy laser”, our investigation finds the group is capable of producing hundreds of kilowatts of destructive light to be mounted in aircraft, ship, or vehicle.
With 95,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, Northrop is one of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers and military technology providers.
The firm ranks No. 101 on the 2022 Fortune 500 list of America’s largest corporations.
Last year, the firm completed their design of this 300-kilowatt “class high energy laser”.
The company website shows even more artist renditions of their capabilities, including on-the-ground and air laser directed energy weapons.
Photo: Northrop Grumman
Photo: Northrop Grumman
The description of the Instagram post mentions an interview with Laser Focus World, where a representative from Northrop explains what their technical capabilities are all about:
Yes, although the lasers may look harmless, they can unleash a force that can destroy unmanned aerial systems and other targets “at the speed of light”.
Keller continues on the interview to describe what is on the horizon for both Northropand the field of directed energy weapons as it pertains to military use in the future:
We’re continuing to deploy and refine our capabilities with these advancements for our customers. Because we understand their missions, we can combine a variety of different core technologies and capabilities. And we’re presently developing a high-energy laser system that can be scaled to more than a megawatt.
Our technical approach will provide a precise, low-cost, speed-of-light solution for military operations.”
Northrop are indeed a major player in an industry that is worth billions of dollars, as companies compete to fulfil their government contracts for both design and application of the weapons.
DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPONS
A directed-energy weapon (DEW) is a ranged weapon that damages its target with highly focused energy without a solid projectile, including lasers, microwaves, particle beams and sound beams.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) spends roughly $1 billion every year on directed-energy weapons, including high-energy lasers and their directed-energy cousin high-power microwaves.
One recent DoD report reveals the types of DEW they are particularly focused on, High Energy Lasers (HEL) and “High Power Microwaves” (HPM).
A close-up shot of a military ship directed energy laser. Photo: TOI
The report describes the difference in function, characteristics and testing of both types of systems:
Northrop Grumman is a pioneer of high-energy lasers.
The company began working on them during the late 1970s, and the technology has since evolved from being based on chemical lasers to electric lasers, and now fiber lasers.
Among their key innovations: laser power scaling; beam combination; advanced targeting and tracking; modularised architectures; scalable subsystems; low size, weight, power and cost; rugged components and materials; and miniaturised systems with high-power output.
But they are certainly not alone in their endeavours.
Lockheed Martin, for example, demonstrated the capabilities of its “ATHENA” laser system in 2017, which uses a 30-kilowatt ALADIN laser to target and destroy UAVs.
The ATHENA complex is based on a 30-kilowatt ALADIN laser (Accelerated Laser Demonstration Initiative). Photo: DMK
Raytheon Technologies also developed the High-Energy Laser Weapon System (HELWS) in 2019, which is capable of “detecting and destroying drones at a distance of up to three kilometres”:
It’s also not just the United States who are boosting their arsenals with directed energy weapons, with countries like China also developing ‘non-lethal’ weapons that can ‘set humans on fire’.
In Australia, the Department of Defence’s Science and Technology unit said in 2018 it was also “conducting research into the development of HPRF systems and enabling technologies, assessing the effects of HPRF DEWs on targets of interest, and the development of hardening measures for protection of assets against such weapons”.
Just one year later, unprecedented (and suspicious) bushfires tore through the east coast of Australia, with many readers of TOTT News claiming they witnessed beams on our shores at the time.
But don’t talk about that connection too loudly, now, as the Thoughtpolice are always listening.
‘Nothing to see here, good citizen! This technology is only used to protect you!’
Directed energy weapons are very real.. and are now even fashionable enough to now be bragged about on Instagram of all places by multi-billion dollar companies.
When do I get my apologies from years of being called a ‘cooker’?!
