Powerful US military laser fires 800-watt beam over record breaking 5.3 miles
PRAD demo enables fast, on-demand energy delivery, scalable for platforms like UAVs, reducing reliance on fuel logistics in the field.
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has achieved a major milestone in wireless energy transmission.
The agency claims it is setting new records in its latest test campaign under the Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay (POWER) program.
Tests demonstrated the successful delivery of over 800 watts of power during a 30-second laser transmission from 5.3 miles (8.6 kilometers) away in New Mexico. Throughout the campaign, more than a megajoule of energy was transferred using advanced optical power-beaming technology.
According to DARPA, the breakthrough marks a significant step in developing long-range, wireless energy solutions for defense and other critical applications.
“It is beyond a doubt that we obliterated all previously reported optical power beaming demonstrations for power and distance,” said Paul Jaffe, Program Manager of POWER, in a statement.
Laser power breakthrough
Military operations rely heavily on energy, but delivering it to remote locations like battlefields or disaster zones is often slow, risky, and resource-intensive.
In a significant test for the POWER program, researchers successfully demonstrated a ground-based laser power transmission system known as the POWER Receiver Array Demo (PRAD). The test focused on beaming energy through the densest part of the atmosphere—a major technical challenge—and still managed to set new records in power and distance.