Less than a day ago, The War Zone reported on a mysterious and very large object related to a "U.S. Navy demonstration program" that was being shipped by Northrop Grumman from the relatively small marine in Redondo Beach to San Diego. Now, as the object is set to be transported via truck to the pier, we know what it is. It is a high-energy laser system that we can say with near certainty is part of the Solid-State Laser Technology Maturation (SSL-TM) program that Northrop Grumman won the contract for in 2015.

SSL-TM looks to deliver a "shipboard laser with a beam power of up to 150kW, which would provide increased effectiveness against small boats and UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles]," according to a review of Navy directed energy projects that the Congressional Research Service published in September 2019. "In January 2018, the Navy announced that it intended to install the SSL-TM laser on the newly built amphibious ship USS Portland (LPD-27). Sea testing of SSL-TM on the Portland is scheduled for the fourth quarter of FY2019."

USN USS Portland.

Portland is homeported in San Diego, which is where the laser is reportedly headed, and the ship was in port as of Sept. 26, 2019, according to the Navy. The 2019 Fiscal Year ended on Sept. 30, 2019, which could indicate a slight delay in the schedule. Otherwise, the dates, the ownership of the system, the "demonstration program" description, and the likely destination all seem to line up near perfectly with the SSL-TM program.

USN A recent slide showing how SSL-TM will be installed on an LPD-17 class ship like USS Portland.

The Navy had originally planned to install the prototype SSL-TM system on the decommissioned Spruance class destroyer USS Paul F. Foster, which now serves as the service's designated Self Defense Test Ship, before shifting the at-sea testing to Portland. As such, much of the original documentation describes the system in relation to the ex-Foster.

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As for the SSL-TM demonstrator itself, the emitter/beam director that sits atop the system, and the platform that surrounds it, is very similar to the design shown in previous concept art. It also looks like a streamlined version of the Solid-State Laser Testbed, or SSLT, which the Army tested a number of years ago at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. This isn't all that surprising as that too was a Northrop Grumman directed energy program. SSLT's beam director was repurposed from a prior initiative called Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL), which TRW had first begun to develop as part of a cooperative U.S.-Israeli program in 1996. Northrop Grumman acquired TRW in 2002.

US Army The Tactical High Energy Laser Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrator, the prototype created under the MTHEL program, during testing circa 2005.

USN A close-up of concept art of the SSL-TM that the Navy released in 2016.

KABC CH7 screencap The Northrop Grumman "demonstrator" in Redondo Beach.

KABC CH7 screencap