The fiscal year 2018 budget blueprint released the morning of March 16 featured, as expected, a $54 billion boost in defense spending, but it also trims NASA’s budget by roughly 1 percent, according to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney.

Mulvaney told reporters March 15 the federal government’s overall budget would not add to the deficit, which he said would total $480 billion for FY ‘18. The additional $54 billion for defense, he said, would result in $54 billion in reductions elsewhere. Mulvaney said the President Donald Trump administration settled on the $54 billion figure as the Pentagon told the administration this is what it can spend in a effectively. Aerial view of the Pentagon, Arlington, VA

The State Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would take hits, Mulvaney said, with the State Department facing a 28 percent cut. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would get a 6 percent boost.

The budget blueprint was set to be released at 7 a.m. EDT March 16. This will not be a complete budget, Mulvaney said. There won’t be revenue projections, policy statements or anything on mandatory spending, which includes programs like Medicare and Social Security. Mulvaney said the blueprint is for only discretionary spending.

Mulvaney said the FY ‘17 budget request for the Trump administration, and a $30 billion supplemental request, would also come out March 16. He said the $30 billion would be for defense and border, though he didn’t elaborate.

Thought the NASA budget would take a roughly 1 percent hit, Mulvaney said many programs in the civil space agency’s budget would get a boost due to the president’s priorities. Conservatives have been hostile to NASA programs that cover climate change or environmental science, instead favoring space exploration-type programs similar to Apollo.

Mulvaney said one of the NASA missions will include a mission to a moon at Jupiter or Saturn. The Jupiter moon targeted is called Europa while the Saturn moon targeted is called Enceladus. Industry consultant Rand Simberg said March 15 experts believe there is the potential for life in the ocean under Europa’s ice and that both Europa and Enceladus likely have much more liquid water than Earth.

Experts, Simberg said, have also seen geysers in both Europa and Enceladus, giving them the belief that both moons have warm oceans with good potential for life. New Horizons, Simberg said, has proposed doing a similar mission at Enceladus, which would be harder because Saturn is further away from Earth than Jupiter.

Simberg said the Europa mission has been a long time goal of Rep. Frank Culberson (R-Texas) as the Houston-area lawmaker has proposed using the Space Launch System (SLS) to get there because it can get there quickly on a fast trajectory. Simberg said a Falcon Heavy could also be used to get to Europa.

Simberg said a Europa mission would probably be two separate trips: one with an orbiter and, potentially, one with a lander. He said the orbiter would go around Europa in orbit and analyze it with instruments without landing on the moon. Ultimately, Simberg said, scientists would like to not just have a lander, but a vehicle that can drill through the ice and drop a submarine in the ocean.

This mission of dropping the submarine in Europa’s ocean wouldn’t be funded first. Simberg said the likely mission to be funded in the FY ‘18 budget would be a scouting expedition as this would probably need to be done first before designing something that would contact the surface of Europa.

Simberg said one challenge with Europa, as opposed to Enceladus, is that Jupiter has one of the most severe radiation environments in the solar system. He said scientist want to figure out if there is sufficient shielding from the water to allow life to evolve on Europa without getting continually killed via radiation. Simberg said Enceladus doesn’t have this issue.

Culberson, in a September press release, said a surface lander would land on Europa in about 10 years.

The Pentagon is set to award at least one contract, maybe more, for its satellite communications (SATCOM) Pilot Program Phase 1 within weeksof mid-March, according to a service spokeswoman.

Air Force spokeswoman Capt. Annmarie Annicelli said March 23 in an email that the total value of Pilot Program Phase 1 is $3 million. The number of awards, she said, is not determined at the moment. Air Force Col. George Nagy, chief, space support to operations division, Office of the Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force for Space, told reporters March 23 at the Pentagon that awards would be made in the upcoming weeks. Aerial view of the Pentagon, Arlington, VA

MIT Lincoln Labs is conducting Pilot Program Phase 1, which is formally known as a Wideband Communications Architecture Study for Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center’s (SMC) military satellite communications (MILSATCOM) directorate. Nagy said Pilot Program Phase 1 earlier in 2017 issued a request for proposals (RFP) for and that Lincoln Labs is assessing responses.

According to industry sources, there are three different programs taking place that are supposed to help inform the Air Force on how to structure its unprotected SATCOM after the current Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) fleet is fielded. One is the Pathfinder series, a series focused on Ku-band. The other is the Pilot Program, which is a “soup to nuts” look at architecture development.

One source said DoD hopes to have this done in time for the Wideband Analysis of Alternatives (AoA), which Nagy said will inform future DoD resource decisions in the coming years. The Wideband AoA is supposed to soon issue a request for information to collect data.

Sources tell sister publication Defense Daily the Pathfinder series seems challenged. Pathfinder 2 sits in the draft RFP phase after the Air Force had an issue trying to use procurement funds. The source said Pathfinder 2 seems to be moving forward now that the Air Force moved it into the research, development test and evaluation (RDT&E) account. Pathfinder 3, the source said, seems in the definitional phase.

One source said the Pilot Program has $10 million in funding for fiscal year 2017. Unfortunately, since the Pentagon is operating under a continuing resolution at FY ‘16 spending levels with no new starts, the Pentagon cannot access that funding and is instead using internal funding for the Pilot Program.

Stakeholders are trying to get more money for the Pilot Program in the FY ‘17 budget, if an appropriation bill is ever signed into law. One source said there will likely be another $10 million if the congressional appropriations committees can get through conference. The extra $10 million was approved by House appropriators, but not Senate appropriators, the source said.

For his part, House Armed Services Committee member Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) said March 23 in an email that he is looking to get funding for the Pilot Program. This number, he said, will depend on the outcome of the FY ‘17 appropriations bill.

“We need to ensure the pilot program is funded in order to take advantage of transformational technologies like high throughput satellites, low earth orbit (LEO) constellations and increased protection,” Bridenstine said.

House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) will not intervene in United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) downselect of a first stage booster for its next-generation rocket, despite declaring in a recent letter that the company should provide Congressional approval of such a decision if the company requests Air Force money for the vehicle’s development.

“My whole deal is we need assured access to space, that’s the federal government’s interest,” Thornberry told reporters March 22 at a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington. “It is not up to me, certainly, or the federal government to make those sort of subcontract decisions.”

Thornberry co-signed a Feb. 28 letter to top Air Force and Pentagon acquisition officials with HASC strategic forces subcommittee Chairman Michael Rogers (R-Ala.). The pair, in this letter, direct the Air Force to not obligate or expend any additional funding to ULA, other than for the launch of current Atlas and Delta rockets, until the company provides the federal government full access to, oversight of, and approval rights over decision making about any downselect on Vulcan (assuming it requests funding). ULA is considering between Blue Origin’s BE-4 or Aerojet Rocketdyne’s [AJRD] AR1 engines for the first stage in its Vulcan launch vehicle.

Charles Miller, a former NASA official and president and founder of NexGen Space LLC, said March 22 Thornberry clearly changed his mind of some of the details of his letter.

“He clearly realized that government micromanagement of how to build a rocket is a bad idea — and refocused on the critical goal of ‘assured access,’ Miller said. “I give Chairman Thornberry great credit for changing his mind — it is the sign of a confident leader.”

ULA CEO Tory Bruno March 22 on Twitter declined to say when the company would make its downselect, only saying that the decision was event-driven and paced by engine testing. He said ULA was currently performing full-scale static testing of the BE-4.

Representatives from Thornberry and Rogers did not respond to a request for comment by press time March 22. ULA spokeswoman Jessica Rye said she would be unable to respond by press time March 22.

Thornberry and Rogers, in the letter, also direct the Air Force stop ULA’s divestment of the Delta IV Heavy rocket. ULA will continue to offer the Delta IV Heavy until the Air Force completes and selects two new launch providers, Rye said March 17. ULA plans to retire its Delta IV Medium variant, which launched an Air Force Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) communications satellite on March 18, in the 2018-2019 timeframe. ULA builds both its Delta IV and Atlas V rockets in northern Alabama.

Thornberry reiterated the point of the letter was to ensure assured access to space, the concept (and law) that the Pentagon must have two certified launch providers are all times to ensure defense payloads can reach space.

ULA is a joint venture of Boeing [BA] and Lockheed Martin [LMT].

Space Systems Loral (SSL) filed a lawsuit on March 22 alleging Orbital ATK [OA] stole its proprietary data relating to the NASA Dragonfly project.

In the filing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, SSL alleged NASA Marshall Space Flight Center notified SSL last December that an employee of Orbital ATK accessed files on NASA’s NX server, at the administration’s Langley Research Center, beyond the files they were authorized to view.

The Dragonfly program intends to eventually develop a satellite that can be launched into space in a compact, stowed state and then assemble itself once in orbit. This kind of technology could allow the Defense Department to create larger satellites that could be packaged in pieces and launched inside a standard-sized vehicle.

SSL’s filing covers six counts: the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016, Misappropriation of Trade Secrets under the Virginia commonwealth code, the Virginia Computer Crimes Act, conversion, and unjust enrichment.

NASA told SSL that at least four files containing SSL proprietary data were opened and/or viewed as part of the data breach and the files containing the proprietary information had been accessed by up to six Orbital ATK employees. NASA notified SSL that it was conducting an investigation and that Orbital ATK was also conducting an internal investigation into the breach.

SSL said it asked Orbital ATK to answer several questions about the scope and impact of the data breach including the number of employees involved in the breach and the roles and responsibilities of such employees. SSL also asked how and why the Orbital ATK personnel accessed SSL’s files; what the employees did with the accessed information; how, why, and to whom SSL’s proprietary information was disseminated; whether Orbital ATK and/or its employees still possess this information; and how and when Orbital ATK first became aware of the data breach.

SSL said on Dec. 31 Orbital ATK sent SSL a one-page letter admitting to the unauthorized access of the data and that it had terminated the employees “whose actions violated [Orbital ATK’s] ethics policy.” However, SSL claimed the letter provided no further details about the breach of the NASA NX server nor did it address how up to six employees accessed the information. The company said Orbital ATK has thus far not responded to SSL requests for more information on the breach or confirm it was limited to the four documents NASA identified.

“Accordingly, SSL is unable to assess the extent of the damage Orbital ATK’s conduct has caused and/or continues to cause and does not know what actions may be necessary to mitigate, if possible, any damage caused to SSL or to prevent future damage to SSL,” the company said in the filing.

SSL said without sufficient information to assess the damage caused by the incident and devoid of any other resource to protect itself, it is seeking the court’s intervention to protect its confidential, proprietary, and sensitive information and to also redress the damage caused by the unauthorized access.

In the lawsuit, SSL says two of the documents identified by NASA contain extensive and detailed non-public information regarding implementation of the Dragonfly project between NASA and SSL. This includes a working plan outlining the project’s objective, the technical approach of the project and details regarding the organizational structure and management approach for implementing the Dragonfly project between SSL and NASA personnel. It also includes detailed system engineering information, specifics about the design and implementation plans for the technology proposed by SSL and information regarding product realization and resource requirements.

The first two documents also lay out assignments, timeframes and reporting requirements for the phases and tasks for implementation of the Dragonfly program.

The third document provides a detailed overview and implementation plan for the project, identifying staffing plans and details of the work to be completed and technology implemented in each phase of the program. This document also includes diagrams and pictures of the technology and hardware to be developed through the Dragonfly program, “thus providing a roadmap to SSL’s project plans and proposed technologies,” SSL said.

The fourth document is a copy of the company’s revised Technical, Management and Cost Proposal for the project, a revised version of the proposal materials submitted to NASA in response to the original 2015 Tipping Point Solicitation.

“This document alone is a treasure trove of information for SSL’s competitors as it provides the architecture for the Dragonfly program,” the filing said.

SSL’s lawsuit asked for an award of compensatory, disgorgement, and punitive damages against Orbital ATK in excess of $100,000 to be proven at trial, in addition to attorneys’ fees and expenses. Orbital ATK was unable to respond to a request for comment by press time March 23.

Orbital ATK [OA] has responded to a March 22 lawsuit by Space Systems Loral (SSL) alleging Orbital ATK stole its proprietary data relating to the NASA Dragonfly project.

In the filing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, SSL alleged NASA notified the company last December that an employee of Orbital ATK accessed files on the NASA NX server beyond files they were authorized to view. SSL said NASA notified them that up to four documents were accessed.

The company also claimed it did not get a suitable response to a set of questions about how many employees were involved in the data breach, what they did with the information, and whether the company still possesses the information (Defense Daily, March 23).

An Orbital ATK spokesperson on March 24 said they are committed to, and adhere to, industry and government best practices in governance and ethics. Therefore, they terminated the employee for violating their Code of Ethics and Business Conduct, immediately investigated the incident in coordination with NASA, quarantined the data according to industry and government best practices in governance and ethics, and remediated the issue to their customer’s satisfaction, the spokesperson said.

“As a result we believe that SSL’s complaints against us are without merit and we intend to defend against them vigorously,” the spokesperson said.

The Air Force won’t stop United Launch Alliance (ULA) from divesting its Delta IV Heavy rocket, despite a pair of key lawmakers ordering the service to do so.

“That was a memo to us and not a law or language,” Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Military Deputy, Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch told reporters March 9 after an Air Force Association breakfast in Arlington, Va. “Industry is making their decisions. I don’t have the ability…to tell them what they can, and can’t, do.”

House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Chairman Mac Thornberry and HASC strategic forces subcommittee Chairman Michael Rogers (R-Ala.) said in a Feb. 28 letter to Air Force brass that ULA is allowing the phase out of the Delta IV Heavy capability before there is a certified, reliable replacement launch system available. The two lawmakers, in the letter, tell the Air Force to stop this. Thornberry’s spokesman did not return a request for comment March 17.

 ULA has no plans on divesting its Delta IV rocket. Company spokeswoman Jessica Rye said March 17 ULA will ensure there is no gap in assured access to space by continuing to offer the Delta IV Heavy until the Air Force completes and selects two new launch providers. Delta IV Heavy launches the Pentagon’s heaviest satellites, which are often spy spacecraft for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

SpaceX is developing its own heavy lift vehicle, Falcon Heavy, but this rocket has yet to debut. Company spokesman John Taylor said March 17 Falcon Heavy was set to debut later in 2017.

ULA CEO Tory Bruno told a House panel in March 2015 he planned on retiring the Delta IV launch vehicle in the 2018-2019 timeframe because, at between $400 million to $600 million per launch, it simply wasn’t competitive on an open market. Rye said he was referring to Delta IV medium, which was set to launch the Air Force’s ninth Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS-9) rocket the night of March  18.

Delta IV Heavy launches are the most expensive launches available to DoD. The Air Force on Dec. 2 awarded ULA a $269 million contract to execute a requirement for fiscal year 2017 launch vehicle production services in support of the Delta IV Heavy.

ULA is a joint venture between Boeing [BA] and Lockheed Martin [LMT].

The launch market is entering an unprecedented era of diversity as smaller satellites become more popular, according to executives from major launch providers.

The diversifying launch market was a key focus of the highly anticipated launchers panel March 8 at the Satellite 2017 conference in Washington. Executives from major launch companies seemed to agree that smaller satellites will become more popular as demand for connectivity ramps up.

Gwynne Shotwell, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) chief operating officer (COO), noted an explosion in the smallsat market and warned that newer, smaller launch service providers could become fierce competitors, much like SpaceX did a decade ago. On the other hand, Stephane Israel, CEO of Arianespace, was not so certain.

“I do not believe they will all materialize and survive,” Israel said, pointing out that Arianespace’s Vega C rocket will have space to accommodate smaller and lighter satellites, likely as secondary payloads.

Lockheed Martin [LMT] Commercial Launch Services President Steven Skladanek expressed disinterest on the geostationary earth orbit (GEO) side.

“What we see is the traditional large GEO birds are not a real growth market right now,” Skladanek said. “That particular customer set is struggling with their economic model.”

Skladanek said the low earth orbit (LEO) market, however, is growing tremendously. Skladanek said that he’s very encouraged by the amount of money being invested in LEO constellations and expects smaller satellites to become more dominant as time progresses.

Kirk Pysher, president of International Launch Services (ILS), still believes GEO satellites will play a role.

“[By] 2022, we believe that the launch market customer needs are going to be extremely diverse, from LEO constellations to medium earth orbit (MEO) and of course GEO,” Pysher said.

Pysher said ILS spent the last year and a half working with customers and understanding their needs. As a result, ILS introduced the Proton variants in the fall, which will be ready first quarter 2018.

Pysher believes ILS will be very well suited to address the spread of new, more experimental satellites coming to the market, particularly the heavier High-Throughput Satellites (HTS). Still, he is looking to address the smallsat market with Angara 1, which he said can deliver up to 3.5 tons to LEO.

The panelists highlighted there is downward pressure on launch prices due to companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, which are pushing for what Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson calls “operational reusability.” Skladanek also said that United Launch Alliance (ULA), the Lockheed Martin-Boeing [BA] joint venture, is looking at ways to recover the first stage engine for the Vulcan as well as making improvements along the production line.

“It makes sense to reutilize the most expensive parts of the rocket … The rest of it is a big dump tank,” Skladanek said. “We’re working on newer manufacturing technologies like 3D printing. We’re shortening the span it requires to assemble, test and prepare the rocket, which allows for more launch opportunities.”

Arianespace does not plan on being left behind in pricing, as Israel has the ambitious goal of reducing the cost for Ariane 6 compared to Ariane 5 by “40 percent.”

As for the long-term future, the panelists agreed that reliability will remain paramount. Ko Ogasawara, vice president and director of integrated defense and space systems at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), hopes to reach 50 consecutive launch successes by 2022, while Israel is determined to finish his company’s new rockets, Ariane 6 and Vega C, on schedule.

Shotwell is all too familiar with the financial consequences of delays due to technical difficulties, but expressed confidence that SpaceX will catch up on its launch manifest before the end of 2017.

“We are investing hundreds of millions (of dollars) in production capacity,” she said. Shotwell expects the company to ultimately reach a biweekly launch rate once its second launch pad is in working order.

Skladanek’s biggest concern for the far future seems to be ensuring interest and innovation in space continues on into younger engineers and entrepreneurs.

“A lot of the heritage workforce who have been part of the rocket industry for years [are] now ready for retirement, myself included,” Skladanek said. “The thing that worries me is we’re not doing enough to ensure we’re transferring talent to this new generation.”

Both Shotwell and Meyerson seemed less interested in satellites, specifically, instead outlining their plans to focus on developing the capabilities of human activity in space.

“We believe it’s time for humanity go back to the Moon and this time to stay,” Meyerson said.

Meyerson noted that any human settlement on the moon is going to need a cargo delivery service. He hopes to address that with Blue Origin’s recently announced Blue Moon program.

Shotwell also has her eyes on our closest celestial neighbor, referencing SpaceX’s literal “moon shot” mission to take two passengers around the far side of the Moon and back. Furthermore, Shotwell reiterated the company’s goal of reaching Mars and said it is currently developing a vehicle large enough to carry 100 people to the Red Planet as a part of its Interplantery Transport System (ITS).

This story was originally published at Via Satellite, a Defense Daily sister publication covering the global satellite communications industry.

The Space Data Association (SDA) and Analytical Graphics Inc. (AGI) have entered into a multi-year agreement to launch an updated Space Data Center (SDC) space traffic management service, according to an AGI statement.

The space traffic management service will be powered by AGI’s Commercial Space Operations Center (ComSpOC). SDC 2.0, which will be available to all members of SDA, has a highly accurate, independently generated catalog of space objects which will grow to include objects larger than 20 centimeters in and transversing the geostationary earth orbit (GEO) arc. AGI spokeswoman Stephanie Eftimiades said March 14 SDC 1.0 tracks all objects one meter and larger.

Eftimiades said SDC 2.0 will fuse observations from a diverse range of sensors and sensor phenomenologies with advanced orbit determination and maneuver processing in tracking objects in the GEO arc.

The service also features functionality to combat radio frequency interference, including the construction of geolocation scenarios and a carrier ID database. Eftimiades aspects of the new service will be phased in over time, but SDA intends to make the new service available as soon as possible after members have had a chance to learn more and sign on to the service.

When asked the subscription price, Eftimiades said the overall cost will be higher than the current SDC 1.0 arrangement, commensurate with the significantly greater capabilities.

Eftimiades said SDC 1.0 functions supporting low earth orbit (LEO) operators will continue as part of the SDC 2.0 rollout. She said SDC 2.0 service upgrades are mainly focused on GEO and low-inclination medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites. Solutions for LEO operators will be the next step, she said.

Eftimiades said the multi-year agreement includes options for each party to opt out of the agreement.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) plans to begin delivering the new Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA interceptor to the U.S. Navy by the end of calendar year 2018, a program official said March 15.

“Our focus right now is getting through the IIA development, getting the IIA into production,” said Navy Rear Adm. Johnny Wolfe, program executive for Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense, who spoke at a Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance event on Capitol Hill.

The Block IIA is a longer-range variant of the SM-3 Block IA and IB interceptors deployed on U.S. Aegis Ships, Japanese Kongo-class Ships and an Aegis Ashore site in Romania. MDA, Japan and Raytheon [RTN] are jointly developing the Block IIA, which will be deployed on land and at sea starting to defend against medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

The new interceptor achieved its first shoot-down of a ballistic missile target during a Feb. 3 test. Another intercept attempt is planned for May.

The Army is set to receive a powerful laser weapon from Lockheed Martin [LMT] capable of shooting enemy weapons from drones to missiles out of the sky at the fraction of the cost of traditional air defense systems.

Lockheed has completed design, development and demonstration of the 60 kW beam “combined fiber laser” and is prepping the truck-mounted system for transport to the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command and Army Forces Strategic Command in Huntsville, Ala.

In final testing earlier in March, Lockheed demonstrated the laser’s ability to produce a single beam of 58 kW, which it says is a world record for that type of laser. The device is a beam combined-fiber laser that crosses the streams of multiple lasers and compounds their individual power by focusing them on a single spot. The design allows for the Army to scale the laser to destroy different size targets by adding or removing fiber laser subunits.

“Delivery of this laser represents an important milestone along the path to fielding a practical laser weapon system,” Paula Hartley, vice president of advanced product solutions for Lockheed Martin Cyber, Ships & Advanced Technologies, said in a statement. “This milestone could not have been achieved without close partnership between the U.S. Army and Lockheed Martin; we are pleased to be able to deliver this system for their further integration and evaluation.”

A rendering of a truck mounted 60 kW laser weapon system for tactical U.S. Army vehicles. Graphic: Lockheed MartinA rendering of a truck mounted 60 kW laser weapon system for tactical U.S. Army vehicles. Graphic: Lockheed Martin

The laser is based on a design developed under the Department of Defense Robust Electric Laser Initiative Program, and further developed through investments by Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Army into a 60kW-class system.

“The inherent scalability of this beam combined laser system has allowed us to build the first 60kW-class fiber laser for the U.S. Army,” said Robert Afzal, Ph.D., senior fellow for Laser and Sensor Systems. “We have shown that a powerful directed energy laser is now sufficiently light-weight, low volume and reliable enough to be deployed on tactical vehicles for defensive applications on land, at sea and in the air.”

According to Afzal, the Lockheed Martin team created a laser beam that was near “diffraction-limited,” meaning it was close to the physical limits for focusing energy toward a single, small spot. The laser system also proved to be highly efficient in testing, capable of translating more than 43 percent of the electricity that powered it directly into the actual laser beam it emitted.

Lockheed intends to develop a family of laser weapon systems capable of various power levels tailored to address missions across sea, air and ground platforms.

Laser weapons provide a complement to traditional air-defense weapons but at a fraction of the cost of firing a Patriot missile or other kinetic interceptors, Army leaders believe. Lasers are seen as a key weapon system to counter swarms of drones or large numbers of rockets and mortars. In 2015, the company used a 30kW fiber laser weapon, known as ATHENA, to disable a truck from a mile away.