Leidos Expands Directed Energy Business With New AFRL Award

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS), a FORTUNE® 500 innovation leader, was recently awarded the $13.1 million Genesis Chamber contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate.

Genesis Chamber aims to assist AFRL in directed energy technology development with the goal of transitioning those innovations to the warfighter and other agencies.

“There has been a push for more directed energy technology to leave the lab and move to the battlefield,” said Billy Schaeffer, vice president in the Leidos Innovation Center. “With over 30 years of experience, our expertise and experience with these technologies will help us set the goal of making this need a reality.”

Through the Genesis Chamber program, Leidos will work with AFRL to investigate directed energy physics and high-power electromagnetic materials and components. They will also develop new weapon concepts and identify compact, directed energy-enabling technologies. The end goal is to transition the lab innovations to the warfighter.

Leidos has already successfully taken a high-powered microwave concept to real-life demonstrations. Having that under their belt, the Leidos team sees Genesis Chamber as a stepping stone for new technologies to develop easily into current and new military systems.

“We have a decades-long collaborative partnership with AFRL in directed energy,” Schaeffer said. “This not only puts us at the forefront of this effort to develop state-of-the-art directed energy technologies but also prepares us to create operational systems for our warfighters.”

The Chamber Genesis project will run for three years with work taking place in Virginia, Alabama and California.