WASHINGTON — Booz Allen Hamilton, a Virginia-based consulting firm, is creating a new high-energy laser business that builds on the company’s in-house investments in directed energy technology in recent years.
The business unit, called HELworks, is headquartered in Fredericksburg, Va., with a second facility in Knoxville, Tenn., the firm announced Oct. 10.
Booz Allen has a nearly 30-year history of working on directed energy projects – from providing technology expertise for high-energy laser programs to developing government prototypes for HEL and high-power microwave systems. Joe Shepherd, HELworks chief executive officer, told C4ISRNET in an Oct. 10 interview at the Association of the US Army conference that over the past five years, the firm has focused more internal investment on developing its own high-energy laser capabilities. .
Directed energy, which includes high-energy lasers, has been a nascent market for the DoD for many years, but the technology is a growing priority for the Pentagon. Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu included directed energy in a list of 14 critical and emerging technologies released in February.
Shepherd said the increased DoD interest is part of the incentive to move forward with HELworks at this time.
“The market is showing promise and the necessary trends, and our technological maturity domestically is at a point where we now have an addressable market with our capabilities,” he said.
With the announcement of the new business unit, Booz Allen also unveiled three HELworks product lines that have been the focus of the company’s recent internal research and development investment. The first, a high-energy laser mission equipment package, is kinetic and non-kinetic and designed for the Army’s Stryker armored vehicle. The HEL MEP is small and lightweight and can be linked to an existing short-range air defense system or integrated with another platform.
The MEP HEL is scheduled to go through initial field testing this fall, in time to participate in an Army demonstration in December at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, Shepherd said.
The mission suite is powered by HELworks’ second product line, LightEngine, which Shepherd described as the “core common ground” for a number of laser weapon systems.
“It has applicability on almost any platform on any laser weapon system,” he said. “It’s agnostic to the beam director that puts light on the target, for example, and it’s agnostic to the platform it would fit on.”
HELworks’ third product line, the High Energy Compact Modular Laser, offers a small, portable package that can be scaled for a variety of design options. According to a company data sheet, the system can be packed into 10 boxes that would fit in a mid-sized pickup truck.
The company has developed, field tested and delivered operational prototypes of MCHEL.
“This is really the first time we’ve come out and talked about the fact that we’ve not only designed, developed and built a prototype like this under IRAD, but we’ve also delivered one to the US government,” he said.
Shepherd declined to disclose the first customer for MCHEL.
