Raytheon and Hughes Employees Recognized on 50th Laser Anniversary

Employees and retirees from The Hughes Aircraft Company and the Raytheon Corporation were awarded recognition during a dinner hosted at the Laser’s 50th anniversary celebration in El Segundo, California by Raytheon. These persons played a key role in contributing to the innovation of the laser.

The web page on the laser anniversary of Raytheon provides more details of the company’s innovation in the laser domain, in addition to a dual band based podcast interview and photographs.

Raytheon’s VP of Engineering, Technology and Mission Assurance, Mark E. Russell informed that the company’s long technology innovations background is demonstrated through many developments in laser that still continues on. He added that Raytheon pioneered many firsts of the laser technology domain in the last five decades and is happy to have accomplished many feats in developing laser innovations as well as its applications. He elaborated that Raytheon engineers will explore more opportunities for leveraging the laser technology’s power for enabling protection of war-fighters and backing customer missions.

Raytheon has focused on the laser technology and has enhanced the precision and speed of laser based solutions for a portfolio of mission critical areas. It has installed many types of laser designators and has offered various laser systems, along with continual creation of new opportunities for laser innovations.

The company has recognized the laser’s 50th anniversary and used the occasion for celebrating the innovations ever since the laser’s working was developed by Hughes Research Lab’s Theodore Maiman on May 16, 1960.

Adaptive photonic based phase locked elements (APPLE) is Raytheon’s DARPA development initiative. The initiative is for development of a directed energy weapon that utilizes a beam combining technique for the achievement of high power. It will integrate the laser enabled weapon applications into unmanned aerial vehicles. Other examples of the company’s laser innovations include quantum sensors, enhanced targeting forward looking infrared, directed infrared countermeasures, demonstration of beam steering technology, and laser area defense system (LADS). The company’s LADS use lasers for bettering the Phalanx system’s accuracy and precision as a component of the directed energy initiative. The initial design of the US Navy’s 100 kW free electron laser was done by Raytheon under the 12 month contract awarded to it by the Office of Naval Research in June 2009. The laser will demonstrate the required parameters for scaling up to the MW grade of laser systems.

Raytheon is taking part in the program for DARPA-STO Quantum Sensors. This initiative is searching and analyzing the concepts to use the quantum states for remote sensing applications. Once developed successfully, these concepts will help to improve the performance of laser radar, radar and various remote sensing solutions.

For the directed IR countermeasures the company protects war fighters using laser as a component of the overall antiaircraft protection system.