From the Magazine: CANBERRA’S EOS DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPON NEARS MATURITY

For most of humanity’s duration on earth, weapons of war have been kinetic – clubs, arrows, bullets, missiles and so on. It’s only in recent times that the electromagnetic spectrum has featured because until the discovery of electricity in the early 19th century people were unaware of its existence. There are several ways that pure energy can be used to generate a physical effect, but the best known DEW are lasers, which first appeared in 1960. These are coherent beams of light that when sufficiently powerful and well-focused can use a stream of photons to melt concrete, burn through metal armoured plate and cause carbon fibre to delaminate. The more intense the beam, the faster these effects can be generated. Canberra-based EOS – sometimes known by their long-form name of Electro Optic Systems – has been developing lasers for 35 years due to the interest of company founder Dr Ben Greene. The company developed both terrestrial and space-based systems that have proven to be an excellent fit with the technology that the company is probably better known for – remote weapon stations (RWS) – which are equipping Army’s Bushmaster and Hawkei protected 4×4 vehicles. When you combine the two research streams, the result is a very powerful laser weapon that can be rapidly slewed through the full 180-degree hemisphere that allows it to be fired at anything in the sky from the ground. And when we say rapid, it is measured in fractions of seconds to switch from target to target, which typically are small kamikaze drones, loitering munitions and UAVs. The company also makes EO/IR sensors and is used to working with a variety of radar, EW and kinetic weapon suppliers enabling it to offer a number of fully integrated defensive systems. One of these counter-UAS developments has the marketing name of Titanis and includes jammers, an automatic cannon – and at its heart a 36kW laser. This is an excerpt from APDR. To read the full story, click here. For Editorial Inquiries Contact: Editor Kym Bergmann at [email protected] For Advertising Inquiries Contact: Director of Sales Graham Joss at [email protected]