High-power lasers for directed-energy applications: reply

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Laser Technology
• Directed Energy

Background:

• Coherent combining of lasers offers potential for high power delivery to distant targets.
• Previous work by Vorontsov and Weyrauch proposed using low-power lasers and cooperative retro-reflective targets.
• Critiques questioned the feasibility and practicality of such approaches.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address critiques regarding laser power beaming.
• To demonstrate an alternative approach for projecting high power onto distant targets.
• To validate the effectiveness of incoherent combining architectures.

Main Methods:

• Experimental demonstration of laser power projection.
• Utilizing an incoherent combining architecture.
• Conducting proof-of-concept experiments in a realistic environment.

Main Results:

• Successful demonstration of high power projection onto a distant target.
• Validation of the incoherent combining approach.
• Experiments performed without cooperative targets or sophisticated adaptive optics.

Conclusions:

• Incoherent laser combining is a viable method for projecting high power onto distant targets.
• The demonstrated approach offers a practical alternative to coherent combining methods.
• The findings support the feasibility of directed energy applications in realistic scenarios.