FB22 Strike Raptor to have HELLADS

First we had large Tactical High Energy Lasers. Then we have Mobile Tactical High Energy Lasers, but our most advanced fighter bomber aircraft, FB22 Strike Raptor will have HELLADS (lazer cannon) so that there is no wasted missiles. The HELLADS program has completed the design and demonstration of a revolutionary subscale high energy laser that supports the goal of a lightweight and compact high energy laser weapon system.

* HELLADS
o Develop and test a 17 kW objective system laser module with integrated power and thermal management subsystems.
o Complete preliminary design of a 150 kW laser weapon system.
o Complete detailed design and fabricate a 150 kW laser weapon system demonstrator.
o Demonstrate performance of a 150 kW HEL and of a 150 kW laser weapon system.



* Aero Adaptive Beam Control
o Conduct design trade studies to develop preferred flow control approach.
o Develop wind tunnel test plan and design wind tunnel model.
o Conduct preliminary tests of flow control approaches using computational fluid dynamics and small scale wind tunnel tests.
o Conduct full scale wind tunnel test to measure aero-optics distortions for turret.
o Utilize flow control to reduce aero-optics effects and measure wavefronts to model effects of adaptive optics processing.
o Integrate adaptive aero optics system with wind tunnel model to conduct hardware-in-the-loop wind tunnel demonstration.
o Design flight test hardware and develop flight test plan.
o Build turret incorporating flow control and compatible with HELLADS laser system and flight test measuring beam quality