Kraus Hamdani Aerospace and PowerLight Applied sciences maintain the K1000ULE in flight utilizing laser-based wi-fi energy beaming, sustaining steady ISR operations with out floor restoration.
Kraus Hamdani Aerospace (KHA) and PowerLight Applied sciences demonstrated wi-fi energy beaming to the K1000ULE at Shaw Air Pressure Base. The AFCENT Battle Lab hosted the occasion. CENTCOM and the Operational Vitality Innovation Directorate (OE-I) sponsored the demonstration.
Wi-fi Energy Beaming Sustains K1000ULE Drone at 5,000 Toes
PowerLight’s cell autonomous system delivered practically one kilowatt of energy to the K1000ULE at altitudes as much as 5,000 ft. The laser-based hyperlink maintained ISR capabilities and communications in real-time. PowerLight’s system autonomously acquired, tracked, and transmitted power whereas adapting to plane motion and environmental circumstances.
The K1000ULE holds DoD Blue UAS Cleared Checklist standing as a Choose Group 2 unmanned plane system. The platform lately acquired a sole-source $270 million IDIQ from U.S. Air Pressure Central Command for Center East missions. KHA beforehand set a 75-hour world-record flight for a Group 2 UAS.
“The K1000ULE is delivering on its core design goal: endurance ranges as soon as thought-about out of attain for conventional fixed-wing plane,” stated Stefan Kraus, CTO and co-founder of KHA. “Integrating PowerLight’s energy beaming functionality extends that persistence additional and reduces the necessity to land. That expands the K1000ULE’s capacity to keep up steady protection in operational environments the place interruption shouldn’t be acceptable.”
Demonstration Factors Towards Multi-Month Wi-fi Energy Beaming Operations
Wi-fi energy beaming removes onboard power storage as the first endurance constraint. The Shaw demonstration validates the potential for multi-month steady drone operations in ahead, infrastructure-limited environments.
“OECIF acknowledged the warfighter worth of laser energy expertise earlier than everybody else and stood by it as the primary and first investor, starting practically a decade in the past,” stated RuthAnne Darling of the Operational Vitality Capabilities Enchancment Fund (OECIF), Division of Struggle. “Growing applied sciences equivalent to this not solely advantages the warfighter, but it surely allows new industries contained in the Protection industrial base and creates industrial alternatives. We anticipate high-energy laser energy beaming to proceed to advance, and function a stepping stone to what’s going to ultimately grow to be Golden Dome.”
“The Shaw demonstrations validated the core system and established a roadmap for scaling this functionality from a single transmitter to a distributed community,” stated Tim Jenks, CEO of PowerLight Applied sciences. “That features greater energy output, better altitude and vary, and the power to maintain a number of plane concurrently throughout a theater.”
Extra data is offered at Kraus Hamdani Aerospace and PowerLight Applied sciences.
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