The Directed Energy team would like you to know that in light of the recent spikes of COVID-19, with CDC and WHO guidelines alongside DoD input, we have taken the decision to host the Summit digitally. We're pleased to announce it will be on Brella, our networking platform that has delegates setting upwards of 30-35 individual meetings per event! We're thrilled to share in this opportunity in the digital landscape as safely as possible.

The U.S. Military has a long and complicated history in developing direct energy weapons and systems. Past efforts have experienced challenges across numerous competencies, hindering many next-generation development and plans for the utilization of DE technologies.

However, recent advancements across the DE community are showing advanced progress, whereby Dr. Kelly Hammett, leader of AFRL’s DE Directorate claims, “For my entire career, we have been working on directed energy. We’re finally at the point which we’re going to see systems that will make a substantive difference on the battlefield.”

With the number of DoD supported DE programs showing promise during concept demonstrations, optimism for operationalization is at an all-time high to leverage DE in the near-term, as their relevancy to address current and emerging threats continues to escalate. Getting this technology into the hands of the Warfighter and defining initial concepts of operation are imperative to better understanding this transformative technology’s role across the Armed Services, before near-peer adversaries do so themselves.

As such, IDGA’s Directed Energy Systems 2020 Summit will focus on the latest deployment, experimentation and operationalization assessments of the technology for the benefit of the Armed Services. Meeting the unique engineering challenges to deliver operational functionality will be of unique importance to moving this technology into operations, one that will be discussed at a senior-level viewpoint at IDGA’s DE Summit!