TUCSON, Ariz., 27 April 2007.Ionatron Inc. has established a new organization focused on the development, engineering, production, and support of specialty lasers for military, aerospace, and security customers.
Ionatron's Laser Group (ILG), to be located in St. Louis, Mo., has been staffed by a team of engineers and technicians with expertise in the design, engineering, and production of compact, rugged, lightweight, and advanced solid-state lasers, and in the special requirements for qualification of lasers for military and aerospace missions.
The focus of the organization will be in engineering Ionatron's laser technologies for military customers, developing new applications for these laser technologies, and in executing other defense and aerospace laser program opportunities.
The ILG team consists of a core of experts in military laser design with experience from a variety of notable military and spaceborne laser programs. These include space-launched laser radar transmitters for several Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars") experiments, the Mars Observer Laser Altimeter (MOLA) transmitter designed to map the surface of Mars, and several military laser rangefinder/target designators and electro-optic countermeasure (EOCM) transmitters.
Ionatron is a developer of directed energy technologies for defense applications, most notably Laser Guided Energy (LGE) which utilizes Tera-Watt class ultrashort pulse lasers coupled with patented and proprietary high-voltage technologies. The laser team will be responsible for transitioning Ionatron's developmental LGE laser architectures into compact and rugged military laser hardware, and the manufacture of those laser subsystems systems for fielding.
Lasers are increasingly being used for defense applications, such as targeting of conventional weapons, and remote detection and identification of targets. Ionatron's newly formed laser group will pursue new military applications for its ultrashort pulsed lasers, as well as development and production programs for other more established military laser technologies.
