Индия разрабатывает семейство лазерных вооружений Surya мощностью от 300 до 500 кВт для перехвата ракет и дронов

DRDO’s 300 kW-class Directed Energy Weapon programme, also known in defence circles as the Surya laser project, will not be a one-off capability, claim insiders close to idrw.org. Rather it is expected to serve as the seeding bed for a series of directed energy programmes with DRDO looking to transition to a containerized 500 kW-class laser weapon system capable of countering highly sophisticated cruise missiles, advanced unmanned systems, and saturated targeting. DRDO has laid out plans to develop and demonstrate a 300 kW laser weapon system known as Surya by 2027, which will be used to engage aerial threats such as drones and potentially even missiles up to a distance of 20 km. The system is being developed by DRDO’s Centre for High Energy Systems and Sciences (CHESS) which uses concentrated beams of light to destroy or damage targets such as drone swarms, loitering munitions, cruise missiles, and aircraft. Notably, DRDO appears to have designed the power output of Surya’s 300 kW to be used as a baseline for future directed energy weapon systems that could leverage greater power outputs of several megawatts by combining multiple laser modules together. This approach appears to be informed by the capabilities on offer from a 300 kW system as opposed to one generating 500 kW or more. According to insiders close to idrw.org, DRDO’s next-gen laser weapon system involves a containerized 500 kW-class weapon, which will be used to counter highly sophisticated cruise missiles, advanced unmanned systems, and saturated targeting, which a 300 kW system may not be able to handle effectively. The threshold between 300 kW and 500 kW is primarily dictated by physics, with the additional 200 kW allowing the system to engage more sophisticated aerial targets. A 300 kW laser is capable of burning the skin of an incoming drone or loitering munition, or even a subsonic cruise missile travelling at a relatively slow speed of around 0.8 Mach, but it would require a lock-on to the target for several seconds before the concentrated beam of light can damage vital avionics or cause structural damage. Meanwhile, a 500 kW system retains a higher energy density at the same distance, which means either reduced time to kill (TTK) for a target compared to a 300 kW system or engaging a target at a longer standoff distance while retaining the same level of lethality. The stated intent to transition to a 500 kW class follows the same pattern as the shift in capabilities on offer from the 300 kW laser versus one generating over 500 kW. The main difference between the drone swarms, mortar shells, rockets, and subsonic cruise missiles being countered by a 300 kW laser and the supersonic cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, advanced unmanned systems, and saturated targeting being engaged by a 500 kW system is the additional time it takes to kill the former. Drones and loitering munitions are simple targets that can be destroyed by a 300 kW laser in several seconds of firing time. Meanwhile, faster targets such as anti-ship missiles and supersonic cruise missiles possess a shorter time to kill window, and a similarly short exposure time to a laser’s beam, meaning a laser weapon system engaging such targets would need to be capable of destroying them in a shorter exposure window. When it comes to saturated targeting, the engagement window for each target is dictated by how long the beam can be maintained on a single target before cycling to the next one in line. DRDO’s approach to 500 kW-class directed energy weapons appears to be informed by the United States’ own approach to the development and deployment of laser weapon systems. Lockheed Martin was tasked by the Pentagon to produce a 300 kW-class laser weapon system under the first phase of the High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI) that saw its commencement in September 2022 to support the US Army’s Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL) programme. However, the Pentagon has since awarded Lockheed Martin a contract for the second phase of HELSI, which will see the development of the same laser scaled to a 500 kW-class benchmark, which is the company’s most powerful laser ever. This approach allows the beam to travel further, have a shorter engagement window while being capable of delivering the same level of lethality as a 300 kW laser weapon system while retaining the same level of optical quality. The additional power allows for increased standoff ranges, reduced TTK, and greater engagement opportunities for fast and/or sophisticated targets. The next-gen US system is likely to make use of a containerized design, with HELSI’s overarching focus being on increasing laser power while maintaining beam quality, thermal management, and overall performance. Enhancing the power of a laser weapon system from 300 kW to 500 kW is not simply a matter of adding more power modules. At 300 kW, laser systems such as Surya have been built around combining multiple modular fiber laser sources, with an aperture of a relatively compact 60 cm being used to combine the beam from these lasers. Meanwhile, 500 kW requires further scaling of multi-kilowatt spectral beam combining with extremely accurate optical beam combiners so as to avoid self-heating of the beam-directing optics. This necessitates a substantially greater amount of electrical power generation and liquid-cooling capacity, which has implications for the laser system’s overall platform. This serves to explain the potential differences between the platforms hosting 300 kW and 500 kW-class directed energy weapons. At 300 kW, there is a possibility to install such a system on heavily modified 8×8 military mobility vehicles or heavily modified merchant ships, whereas a 500 kW system’s power and cooling requirements make large combat ships, heavily reinforced mobile defence systems, or even strategic static installations the only viable options. If the insiders’ claims are accurate, then DRDO appears to be taking a page out of the book of the United States when it comes to the development and deployment of its own directed energy weapons. Just as the Indian missile Defence capability matures as a family of systems encompassing M1/M2/M3 interceptors under the Project Kusha, a similar approach is likely to be taken by DRDO’s directed energy weapon capabilities. As such, while Surya, a 300 kW-class directed energy weapon system being developed for engaging drone swarms, loitering munitions, and subsonic cruise missiles, will supplement India’s air-defence capabilities, a 500 kW-class directed energy weapon system will be used to counter more sophisticated and faster aerial targets as well as those employing saturated targeting. Raunak Kunde