DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office will be actively monitoring ERIS for innovative, post-competitive, awardable solutions that address the need for moderate power (100W – 20kW) high-energy lasers that can be operated at high duty cycle in SWaP-constrained systems such as armoured personnel carriers or unmanned aerial vehicles until 30 November 2026.
DARPA is exploring the development of new approaches to generating/amplifying high-energy lasers in the 100W – 20kW power regimes. Potential awardees will generate engineering designs for novel high-energy laser approaches that address the cooling challenges posed by continuous operation. Key research and innovations are expected to focus on heat exhaust and transport and returning the laser to a steady state for operations while maintaining beam coherence and other traditional metrics of laser quality. Solutions should allow phase control of the laser for purposes of beam tuning in a larger system.
Potential solutions are to be uploaded to the ERIS portal under Topic Area 2 – Developing Advanced Technologies for Improved Resilience, Efficiency and Effectiveness of Strategic Systems.
Document
ERIS Shopping Notice – High Duty Cycle HEL for Swap-Constrained Systems – DARPA-SN-26-82
