DTN 118: DoD Smashes Wireless Power Transmission Record

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June 20, 2025

“Gone are the days of having a single hypothesis tested and learned. We are now in an era of learning programmatically and finding global maximums and minimums much more quickly within a specific domain.”

“A Pentagon wireless energy relay program has achieved a record transmission of power over a distance. In a recent series of tests, the Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay (POWER) program team delivered 800 watts of power in 30 seconds from a laser 8.6 kilometers (5.3 miles) away. It bested the previously reported record transmission of 230 watts of average power at 1.7 kilometers (1.05 miles) for 25 seconds. The test campaign in New Mexico saw the transfer of over one megajoule of energy.

‘It is beyond a doubt that we absolutely obliterated all previously reported optical power beaming demonstrations for power and distance,’ POWER program manager Paul Jaffe said after the results were confirmed.”

A bird’s next made of fiber optic cable in Ukraine, photographed by a a soldier in the Support Battalio, 12th Brigade Azov. Via @saintjavelin / X

A bird’s nest woven with fiber-optic cable found in Ukraine highlights how widespread these cable-guided drones have become on the battlefield. Immune to jamming and radio detection, the drones allow Ukrainian forces to strike hidden Russian vehicles inside buildings. As production scales up and countermeasures remain limited, this marks the start of a new phase in drone warfare. (via Forbes)

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