Archives for April 2018

The U.S. military recently tested a new, high-powered microwave weapon built by Raytheon in New Mexico to down swarms of incoming drones and missiles.

Raytheon successfully demonstrated the system in December during an Army exercise at Fort Sill, Ok., where the ground-based weapon shot down 33 unmanned aerial vehicles with high-power electromagnetic waves, simultaneously knocking out groups of two-to-three drones at a time, said Raytheon New Mexico site director Susan Kelly.

“At one point in the final demonstration scenario, there were eight drones coming at us from different directions in groups of two and three and we took them all out,” Kelly said. “We showed the system is now ready and available as a counter-swarm weapon to down multiple drones at once.”

The prospect of incoming swarms of UAVs is a rapidly-emerging battlefield threat, and the U.S. military is considering laser and microwave weapons as a way to counter them, Kelly said. In the Fort Sill experiment, Raytheon also demonstrated its high energy laser to destroy 12 more UAVs in flight, plus six stationary mortar projectiles.

It will take more time for such weapons, known as directed energy systems, to actually be deployed in war zones, but the military is developing the tactics, techniques and procedures for those weapons, said Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-NM.

As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Heinrich has spearheaded bipartisan efforts to get the Pentagon to move directed energy systems into final test-and-demonstration phases. The federal spending bill signed last month by President Donald Trump earmarks $158 million for directed energy development, including about $70 million for work by the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque. AFRL worked last year with Raytheon under a $2 million contract to get that company’s microwave system ready for the Fort Sill demonstration.

Two laser systems have been deployed to date — one on the USS Ponce in the Persian Gulf and one on a Stryker armored vehicle in Europe — but no microwave weapons are yet being used.

“We’re at a turning point where we’re truly moving from the idea phase to the implementation phase,” Heinrich told the Journal this week. “It’s a moment of inflection now as the Pentagon conducts all the managerial work to figure out how these weapons will actually be used in war-fighting environments.”

That’s a huge step forward, given the military’s cautious approach in the past to directed energy weapons, Heinrich said.

Many systems were either partly or fully developed in New Mexico, including Raytheon’s ground-based anti-swarm weapon.

Raytheon and Boeing also worked together on the military’s Counter-electronics High-Powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project, or CHAMP, which places a microwave weapon in a cruise missile to destroy electronics, computers and other systems as it flies over buildings and installations. Raytheon upgraded two CHAMP missiles under a $5 million contract last year for the AFRL and Navy to adapt for delivery on B-52 bombers.

Such work has grown Raytheon’s Albuquerque workforce to about 190 employees, with 50 more hires expected in coming months, Kelly said. The company has also expanded its facilities at the Sandia Science and Technology Park, adding a 72,000-square-foot building to its existing 103,000-square-foot space.

If the military opts to acquire Raytheon’s anti-swarm microwave system, it would likely be built in Albuquerque, although that depends on how many are ordered.

“It depends on the quantity and timeline to do it,” Kelly said. “If the order is for one, for sure we’d do it here, but if it’s thousands, we’d have to think about it.”

Microwave systems like the anti-swarm weapon offer rapid, low-cost, unlimited firepower that relies on a diesel generator.

“Missile and bullet rounds can be expensive and take time to reload, but this doesn’t have those issues,” Kelly said. “It’s an unlimited magazine that just uses energy. As long as the generator is operating, you can keep on firing.”

Today’s easy access to inexpensive drones that can be cheaply and rapidly modified with explosives makes such next-generation directed energy weapons critical, said Raytheon spokesman John Patterson.

“As threats advance and become more challenging, we’re being called open to innovate new speed-of-light solutions,” Patterson said. “That’s what this system offers. It game-changing technology.”

By: Kevin Robinson-Avila (ABQ Journal)
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With the right strategies, New Mexico could become a bustling hub for developing and building novel, cutting-edge solar technologies, according to a new study by the California-based American Jobs Project.

The report, released Tuesday in partnership with the University of New Mexico’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research, says the state could nearly triple its solar-related jobs from about 2,500 now to 6,800 over the next 12 years through a comprehensive, cluster-development approach that helps propel homegrown research, development and commercialization of advanced solar technology.

That means focusing on the innovative science and engineering breakthroughs already emerging from New Mexico’s national labs and universities to develop next-generation photovoltaics that could eventually turn windows, buildings and even everyday fabrics into electric generators.

The market for that type of innovation is growing exponentially, and New Mexico is well-poised to become a key player as the solar industry moves beyond traditional PV cells and panels, said American Jobs Project director Kate Ringness, who co-authored the report on New Mexico.

“Our research shows that the state can continue to capitalize on this opportunity by becoming a hub for advanced solar technologies,” Ringness said. “This report offers a practical roadmap for expanding advanced solar manufacturing in New Mexico to create good-paying manufacturing jobs in a sector that’s growing worldwide.”

Many local startups are already working to market next-generation technologies conceived in New Mexico’s labs and universities. Albuquerque-based mPower Technology Inc., for example, is using microscale solar cells created by Sandia National Laboratories to make lightweight, flexible PV sheets for use in everyday products and structures. Ubiquitous Quantum Dots is using technology from Los Alamos National Laboratory to create an electric-generating coating for windows that can channel photons from sunlight to PV cells attached to window frames.

The report offers recommendations to help transfer more technology from lab to market, including creating an advanced solar center of excellence to push innovation and support entrepreneurship; starting a technology maturation loan fund, launching collaborative efforts to seek foundation grants for programs and companies and increasing opportunities for youths to train for jobs in solar-related companies.

Perhaps most important, the report calls for a cluster development strategy based on collaboration among the labs, universities, government institutions and businesses.

BBER Director Jeffrey Mitchell called that a forward-looking strategy.

“New Mexico has missed the economic development boat in the past with outdated strategies to recruit business,” Mitchell said. “This is looking ahead at how to get in on the ground floor of something not yet developed.”

It could also help diversify the local economy and broaden the state’s manufacturing base, Mitchell said. Today, New Mexico ranks 49th in the nation in manufacturing, which accounts for 3.2 percent of total employment.