By Adrian Olivier
From May 27-31, at the bi-annual Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) Sandbox in Suffield, Alberta, Boeing displayed its Compact Laser Weapon System (CLWS). The system is a laser counter to Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAVs) designed to track and destroy Group 1 and 2 small UAVs. These types of UAVs have, in the last few years, rapidly increased their capabilities and are challenging to detect and defeat. The system can also be used to destroy unexploded ordnance.
A sandbox refers to an environment where companies can test their innovative technologies. The Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Sandbox, organized by Canada’s Department of National Defence’s IDEaS program in coordination with the Canadian Armed Forces, brought together multiple countries to test their ability to detect and defeat small UAVs. IDEaS is a defence innovation program, launched in 2018 which invests in research and technology for the DND and the CAF.
Boeing brought two CLWS systems to the Sandbox, one mounted on a Polaris RZR, widely used by the U.S. military and one in a fixed containerized configuration. They were placed side-by-side to cooperatively detect and defeat single and multiple drone targets, including first-person view (FPV) drones, stationary mortars and a swarm of five UAVs.
Ron Dauk, who has led Boeing’s Laser and Electro-Optical systems group for the last half-decade, said Boeing’s “Compact laser weapon system brings a hard kill capability, which means we're able to actually knock it down out of the sky when we engage those targets.”
The CLWS has been tested at ranges from 200 metres to 2.5 kilometres, but the system is more effective the closer a drone gets. “The shorter the range, the faster that they can be killed. Our first engagements up at the sandbox were almost less than a second. They were very short, but they can be tens of seconds. For very long-range engagements, it's a little dependent on, the overall conditions and, and some other factors but they're kind of in that category of less than a second, up to tens of seconds when you need to engage a target longer ranges,” Dauk said.
“The operator picks an aim point, sometimes it's just the center of mass of the target, especially for long-range engagements, you're not seeing a lot of definition, but for shorter-range engagements where you can resolve the target much more efficiently, you may choose to engage one of the rotors or a motor and the laser is effectively a blowtorch at range,” Dauk said.
Boeing's focus on ruggedness and reliability was evident in the design of the CLWS. The system has undergone extensive testing in various environments, including rain, snow, dust, and extreme temperatures. Additionally, the CLWS has been tested on different platforms, including aircraft and combat vehicles, proving its versatility and durability in challenging conditions.
CLWS uses a high-performance mid-wave infrared sensor which allows for both day and night detection and engagement of the UAVs. Dauk emphasized the importance of addressing the growing threat posed by small drones, which are increasingly used for reconnaissance and direct engagement in conflicts worldwide. The CLWS offers a cost-effective solution, with each shot costing only as much as a cup of diesel fuel, compared to the exorbitant costs of traditional missile systems. This low-cost per-shot advantage, combined with the system's ability to engage multiple targets continuously, makes it an attractive choice.
This system doesn’t come cheap though. Though Boeing didn’t give an exact figure, the price tag for the CLWS is in the millions. While the cost of the CLWS system remains higher than some traditional weapons, its long-term benefits and cost-effectiveness make it an attractive option for defence organizations. The ability to engage targets continuously, without the need for frequent and expensive reloading, provides a distinct advantage in prolonged engagements and swarm scenarios. “As long as you have diesel fuel in the tank of your vehicle, you have capability. So you have a very deep magazine and you're able to engage multiple targets, continue that over a long period of time and then also engage swarms.” Dauk said.
The system doesn’t require much training either and can be easily operated by a single operator. They use controllers which Dauk said look like Game Boy controllers, which is how they drive the beam director – the part of the system that points toward the target. “Once they acquire the target, they put it into an automatic tracking mode,” Dauk said. Dauk said hundreds of operators have already been trained on the system, which has a simple and intuitive interface with only a single screen. “We have found that training operators can be done in one to two weeks or less, to make them proficient enough to be engaging UAVs.” Dauk said.
All the production, from design through to prototype and fabrication takes place at Boeing’s facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This facility recently underwent a 27,000-foot expansion. “Right now we have the capability that we could produce, tens of units per year. So we're in that kind of capability that if we had a customer that said they had an urgent need, we could start building those today and start hitting, numbers where we can be doing, you know, multiple unit deliveries per month fairly quickly.” Dauk said.
Boeing also has collaboration agreements with General Atomics on larger laser systems. These larger systems, targeting hard targets with hundreds of kilowatts of laser power, are part of the broader strategy to provide scalable and cost-effective defence solutions.
