POWER: Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay

Energy is a fundamental currency in the battlespace. 

The POWER program will leverage power beaming for near-instantaneous energy transport to enable a resilient, multi-path energy network. To create this wireless energy web, POWER seeks to design and demonstrate effective airborne optical energy relays. 

These relays are a critical component necessary to allow ground-sourced lasers to be coupled with high-altitude, efficient long-range transmission. As envisioned, POWER’s final demonstration will employ relays integrated onto existing platforms to validate long-distance transmission from a ground-sourced laser through multiple airborne nodes and back down to a ground receiver.

Offboarding energy storage and generation from platforms opens up a novel design space where platform capabilities are no longer dependent on the quantity of fuel carried. This provides an opportunity for small, inexpensive distributed platforms with significant capabilities such as unlimited range or endurance. POWER will explore conceptual designs for optimized relay platforms while demonstrating relays that have the characteristics necessary for use in a larger, scalable airborne wireless power beaming network.