Categorizing High Energy Laser Effects for the Joint Munitions Effectiveness Manual

With the high risk and cost in fielding High Energy Laser (HEL) weapon systems, the development process must include computer simulation models of weapon system performance from the engineering level up to predicting the military worth of employing specific systems in a combat scenario. This research effort focuses on defining how to measure lethality for HEL weapons in an Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) scenario. In order to create an effective measure for direct comparison between the emerging laser weapon system and existing conventionally delivered weapons, lase time in seconds is presented as a measure comparable to rounds required to cause the desired effect at the target. An examination of input parameters which influence the output power of the laser at the target and thus the required lase time is presented with particular attention being paid to atmospheric conditions and vulnerable bucket size.