Aqwest proposes to develop a lightweight and energy-efficient ultra-short pulse laser (USPL) Prototype ruggedized for operation on Army ranges to support testing in relevant Army environments. The project work will leverage USPL concepts, designs, and hardware already developed by Aqwest for the US Army, Navy, and the Department of Energy (DOE) to accelerate the development of the Army USPL Prototype while reducing the cost and risk. In Phase I, we will formulate the architecture, design concepts, and integration approaches for the USPL prototype and support them with analyses anchored to test data. We will show how the resulting designs meet the Army specifications in a compact, lightweight, and ruggedized package that can be evolved for deployment on a tactical platform. Where advantageous, we will utilize USPL concepts, designs, and hardware newly developed by Aqwest for the US Government. We will use USPL models we recently updated for the US DOE to evaluate the performance of the USPL prototype and its components via predictive simulations. We will generate a Phase II plan including the system development plans, performance goals, risk mitigation approaches, and key milestones. In Phase II, we will utilize the Phase I designs to fabricate, test and evaluate the tactical USPL Prototype. We will demonstrate, measure, and validate system performance via analysis, modeling, and prototype testing to establish its suitability, safety, durability, and environmental performance for operational test and evaluation on a Army range.
