nLIGHT wins $86 million high energy laser development contract

nLIGHT, a leading supplier of high-power semiconductor and fiber lasers, announced today that it has been awarded an $86 million contract to produce a High Energy laser (HEL) prototype for the next phase of development in support of the U.S. High Energy Laser Scaling Program (HELSI).

As part of the first phase of the HELSI program, the Office of the Undersecretary for Research and Engineering selected nLIGHT in 2019 to produce a 300-kW class high energy laser using its coherent beam combination (CBC) architecture. In 2022, nLIGHT demonstrated power beyond HELSI program goals and the scalability of our CBC architecture.

Today's awards are part of a multi-year development program that is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2023.

"When we founded nLIGHT more than 20 years ago, our vision was to produce lasers of the highest power and brightness by utilizing the vertical integration of semiconductor laser chip to beam control," commented Scott Keeney, CEO of nLIGHT. "The award of this contract reflects nLIGHT's strong commitment to the defense market and our ability to combine our leading technology with the strengths of high-volume commercial laser operations to deliver innovative and cost-effective directed energy lasers.

"We are pleased to receive continued support from the HELSI program to develop and further demonstrate our CBC technology and innovative beam combination and control," commented Jeff Barchers, President of nLIGHT DEFENSE Systems. "Our technology is capable of scaling to higher power and delivering higher performance, and we look forward to continuing to work with dod.

About nLIGHT Corporation

nLIGHT, Inc. is a leading supplier of high-power semiconductor and fiber lasers for industrial, micromachining, aerospace and defense applications. nLIGHT is headquartered in Camas, Washington, and has defense operations in Colorado, Oregon, and Washington.

Source: Laser Net