Aditya Project

Why in NEWS ?

• DRDO is trying to develop its own set of laser weapons, India’s own Star Wars Project called Aditya.

About

• From laser dazzlers to control rioting crowds to high-powered lasers to destroy incoming missiles, DRDO is working on a slew of directed energy weapons (DEWs).
• DRDO’s CHESS (Centre for High Energy Systems and Science), Hyderabad is developing Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) systems for use by the Indian Armed Forces (AFs).
• Laser Science and Technology Centre (LASTEC) is developing laser source technologies for Directed Energy Weapon (DEW), as also for dazzling and imaging applications.

Aditya Project

• It is LASTEC’s Aditya Gas Dynamic High Power Laser based Directed Energy System.
• LASTEC’s Aditya project was an experimental test bed to seed the critical DEW technologies.
• The Gas Dynamic High Power laser based Directed Energy System can be broadly divided into two major subsystems:
  1. Laser Power Source and
  2. Beam Delivery System of Aditya
• The Laser beam used in a DEW is subject to attenuation (loss of intensity) due to atmospheric air and jitter due to the turbulence within the atmospheric air. The damage caused by the beam progressively reduces with target distance.
• In order to cause the stipulated damages at 0.8 km and 2.5 km distance using a 0.7 m aperture telescope, laser power of the order of 100 kW is required .
• The beam delivery system has to simultaneously perform several roles. It acquires and tracks the distant static and moving target in real time and points and focuses the laser beam on the target. The adaptive optical system has to compensate for the jitter and wave front distortion of the laser beam from the source.
• The technology related to laser source, beam delivery and issues related to system integration on mobile platforms were addressed during the execution of the Aditya project which will provide useful input to future laser weapon programs of DRDO.