Experience
Prior to joining M7, our personnel were major contributors on prominent air, land, and space based custom laser programs. Much of our team’s experience base was built while employed at General Electric, McDonnell Douglas, Northrop Grumman/Cutting Edge Optronics, and Applied Energetics.
Click on the program names for more information.
Airborne Lasers
ALMDS (Airborne Laser Mine Detection System) – Used for the detection and localization of surface and near-surface mines; platform is the MH-60S helicopter; 45 W average power of 532nm at 350 Hz, 10 ns pulsewidth; fully qualified against MIL-STD-810F, MIL-STD-704E, and MIL-STD-461E in both storage and operational scenarios; input power is three-phase, 400 Hz, 115 VAC
RAMICS (Rapid Airborne Mine Clearance Systems) – Used for the reacquisition and neutralization of mines located by ALMDS; platform is the MH-60S helicopter; greater than 40 W average power of 532nm at 350 Hz, 6ns pulsewidth; fully qualified against MIL-STD-810F, MIL-STD-704E, and MIL-STD-461E in both storage and operational scenarios; input power is three-phase, 400 Hz, 115 VAC
AQS-20 – Used to detect, localize, and classify bottom, and volume mines; platform is an underwater towed body tethered to the MH-53E helicopter, MH-60S helicopter, or Remote Minehunting System (RMS); short pulsewidth, conductively-cooled, 532nm laser operating at 400 Hz; total power draw is less than
400 W
SHOALS (Scanning Hydrographic Operational Airborne Lidar Survey) – Bathymetric lidar for rapidly measuring shallow water depths and near shore land elevations; deployed on Bell 212 helicopter and Dehaviland Twin Otter airplane; three generations of lasers were built operating at 200 Hz, 400 Hz, and 1 KHz respectively; laser output both 532nm and 1064nm
CHARTS (Compact Hydrographic Airborne Rapid Total Survey) – 3 KHz version of the SHOALS laser
Laser Target Designator/Rangefinder for the US Air Force AC-130U Gunship
Comanche Laser Designator Rangefinder
Nighthawk Laser Designator Rangefinder
Space Lasers
Brilliant Pebbles
MOLA (Mars Observer Laser Altimeter) – Diode-pumped Nd:YAG slab laser; laser output is 40mj at 10 Hz with a 10ns pulsewidth; the laser consumed less than 15 W from 28 VDC input power; housed in an all beryllium enclosure; conductively cooled
Clementine – Diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser operated at 1064nm and 532nm; pulse energy of 180mj with a 10ns pulsewidth; fired at 1 Hz continuously or an 8 Hz burst mode up to 400 pulses
NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) – Diode-pumped Cr;Nd:YAG laser operated at 1064nm; output energy is 15mj with a 15ns pulsewidth; firing rate was selectable between 1/8, 1, 2, and 8 Hz