Thales Australia et le University of Adelaide have this week announced a partnership to explore development of a unique Laser Directed Energy Weapon (LDEW) to counter threats from drone swarms on the battlefield.
The partnership aims to explore the application of ultra-short pulse LDEW where long-range continuous wave systems – which have a more limited range and are slower to defeat threats – have traditionally been used. By developing ultra-short pulse lasers (USPL), the partnership has the goal of delivering a capability that is, Thales states:
“More effective at long range, can penetrate through fog or cloud, and has a significantly smaller weight, space and power requirement, enabling mobility, transportability and integration into vehicles and smaller platforms.”
The development of USPL is the next step in transforming directed energy capabilities, one of six core priorities of the Australian Government’s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA). The ASCA was launched by the Australian Government on July 1, 2023 with the mission of accelerating the delivery of capability to the Australian Defence Force (ADF) by “connecting and streamlining the defence innovation system”.
Graham Evenden, Director Business Growth at Thales Australia, commented that the recent partnership with the University of Adelaide is an exciting opportunity to deliver “a unique USPL technology that builds on Thales’ expertise in Directed Energy Weapons, optronics and laser science.”
Professor Anton Middelberg, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Adelaide highlighted the role of the University as “one of the nation’s most research-intensive institutions” with the partnership acting as “part of the University’s commitment to ensuring it builds and maintains the research skills, infrastructure, commercialisation and knowledge transfer abilities required to contribute to the defence of our nation.”
Crédit photographique : Thales
