Lasers & Sources

L-3 Brashear supplies high-energy laser beam director for Canadian defense applications

April 15, 2015

A High-Energy Laser (HEL) Beam Director (BD) from L-3 Brashear has been delivered to DRDC.

L-3 Brashear has delivered its high-energy laser beam director (HEL BD) for Canadian defense and security applications.

A High-Energy Laser (HEL) Beam Director (BD) from L-3 Brashear (Pittsburgh, PA) has been delivered to Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC; Ottawa, ON, Canada) to enhance DRDC’s mobile characterization and development laboratory. DRDC, an agency of Canada’s Department of National Defence, is the country’s leader in defense and security science and technology.

L-3 worked closely with leading scientists at DRDC to design and build a ruggedized HEL BD for use at open field test ranges. The trailer-mounted HEL BD includes a vision system, aiming aids and a multi-kilowatt optical system, allowing the operator to adjust the spot size of the beam on target to evaluate the laser's capabilities. The development effort will allow establishment of potential requirements for an HEL-based military system for the Canadian Armed Forces.

"For more than 25 years, L-3 Brashear has been the supplier of HEL BDs for the U.S. military and we are very proud to offer this technology to our international allies," said Dave Wessing, L-3 Brashear's vice president and general manager. "We are dedicated to developing innovative, cost-effective systems that will defend our warfighters, as well as allied soldiers, from the dangers of IEDs, mortars, artillery, UASs and other enemy threats."

L-3 Brashear designs and produces complex electro-optical and electro-mechanical systems for the defense, aerospace and commercial markets. As a recognized leader in optical technologies, its products and precision optical capabilities are used in high-energy laser missions, fire control solutions and stabilized tracking systems.

Headquartered in New York City, L-3 employs approximately 45,000 people worldwide and is a prime contractor in aerospace systems and national security solutions. L-3 is also a leading provider of a broad range of communication and electronic systems and products used on military and commercial platforms. The company reported 2014 sales of $12.1 billion.

SOURCE: L-3 Brashear; http://www.l-3com.com

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.