Weapon laser design reached an important milestone thanks to defense contractor Northrop Grumman, who reported it got a solid-state laser to fire a 105.5 kilowatt beam, the most power light ray yet created by an electric laser.

"Our modular JHPSSL design makes it straightforward to scale laser weapon systems to mission-required power levels for a variety of uses, to include force protection and precision strike missions for air-, sea- and land-based platforms," said Dan Wildt, vice president of Directed Energy Systems for Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector."

Wildt went on to underscore the importance of the achievement saying that "the 100kW threshold has been viewed traditionally as a proof of principle for 'weapons grade' power levels for high-energy lasers." Noting that there are many military applications that can be achieved with laser weapons of 25kW or 50kW, Northrop Grumman's achievement ensures power scaling won't be a problem for some time to come.

The high-power laser demonstration operated at above 100kW for over 85 minutes using seven laser chains. By adding an eighth chain, Northrop says it will be possible to increase laser power to 120kW.

(Image Credit: Northrop Grumman)