The first product offering in nLIGHT's HADES family of CBC High Energy Lasers (HEL) is a 70kW-class system capable of neutralizing drones and other advanced threats at extended range with exceptional speed and efficiency. By leveraging nLIGHT’s industry-leading and patented technology in coherent beam combination (CBC), high energy beam directors, tracking systems, and advanced atmospheric correction, nLIGHT’s CBC laser and effector brings an unmatched combination of lethality, SWaP, and agility to the fight - ensuring superior protection wherever the mission demands.
HADES is a scalable portfolio of high-energy laser effectors built on nLIGHT’s vertically integrated manufacturing base and industry leading beam‑combination technology with integrated atmospheric correction to achieve unprecedented lethality at range. Production ready today, HADES is robust and reliable, meeting the demanding requirements for integration into various weapons platforms, and enabling scalability from tens of kilowatts for C-UAS to hundreds of kilowatts for Advanced Threats.
“HADES builds on more than 25 years of innovation in laser power scaling, system integration, and high‑reliability manufacturing,” said Scott Keeney, President and Chief Executive Officer of nLIGHT. “By unifying our directed‑energy offerings into a single, scalable product family, HADES delivers production‑ready laser weapon solutions that achieve unmatched power scaling, superior beam brightness, and advanced atmospheric correction—bringing the brightest possible energy on target for the fastest kills at range.”
A Scalable Directed Energy Architecture
HADES ("High-power Adaptive Directed Energy System") is designed around nLIGHT’s vertically integrated laser technology stack, encompassing semiconductor laser diodes, fiber amplifiers, beam combination, and atmospheric correction. Leveraging patented and proprietary coherent beam combination technologies, HADES systems deliver high optical efficiency, beam quality, and reliability in ruggedized, field‑serviceable configurations. Each system can be integrated with existing beam directors, sensors, and battle management architectures, enabling rapid deployment across a broad range of military platforms and battlefield environments.
The newly launched 70kW-class is the first of the HADES family of high-energy laser effectors. Available today, the coherently beam-combined HEL with atmospheric correction delivers substantially higher lethality and engagement capability for C-UAS and counter-rocket, artillery, and mortar (C-RAM) missions, providing a solution for advanced air and missile defense applications and next-generation directed energy platforms.
- High Lethality
- Patented coherent beam combination delivers industry-leading irradiance on distant targets despite challenging atmospheric conditions, allowing for very short dwell times to neutralize swarm threats.
- With its compact, lightweight, and energy efficient architecture, HADES supports a broad range of air, ground, sea, and space domain platforms.
- Ultra-low jitter point-and-track for enhanced target discrimination and laser weapon system effectiveness.
- To maximize uptime, HADES is designed to be operated and maintained in the field by warfighters.
Also available:
30 kW-Class HEL | High Beam Quality for Fast Kills at Distance
nLIGHT's 30kW-class HEL combines the industry’s leading, field-proven amplifier technology with proprietary beam combination to produce superior beam quality for maximum lethality at range.
- Proprietary Spectral Beam Combination (SBC) technology produces superior beam quality enabling engagement at longer range with faster kills.
- Small and lightweight to meet the needs for integration into a broad range of platforms.
- Field-proven production amplifiers enable full power operation…for every shot.
10 kW-Class HEL | Economical Cost-Per-Shot
nLIGHT’s 10kW-class DBC High Energy Laser combines the industry’s leading and field proven amplifiers with a proprietary dichroic beam combination (DBC) method to produce excellent beam quality for shortest kill time at range.
- High Beam Quality
- Utilizing proprietary DBC technology, superior beam quality is achieved enabling engagement at longer range with faster kills.
- Self-Protecting Amplifiers
- Integrated systems protect amplifiers against loss of seed and linewidth broadening.
- Self-Protecting
- Reliable
- Precision Tracking
Read more: AFRL engineer leaves a legacy called HADES
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