
Counter-Drone Defense, Ultrashort Pulse Lasers, Applied Energetics with Chris Donaghey
How Applied Energetics is taking ultrashort pulse lasers from the optical table to hardware it can build repeatedly Guest: Chris Donaghey, President and CEO of Applied Energetics What do you do when a cheap drone can find its target by sight and doesn’t need a radio link you can jam? On The Startup Defense , Callye Keen and Chris Donaghey discuss where directed energy fits in a layered defense. Chris explains why Applied Energetics targets the camera on small drones, how commercial telecom components changed what the team could build, and what it takes to go from an outdoor demonstration to a system a manufacturer can build again. Topics What fiber-guided drones reveal about the limits of jamming, and how onboard autonomy changes the problem How ultrashort pulse lasers differ from lasers that heat an airframe Where counter-sensor systems fit alongside radar, interceptors, and other lasers Why the cost of defending against cheap drones is renewing interest in directed energy How commercial optical fiber helped Applied Energetics move beyond the lab Takeaways The camera can be the mission. A drone that needs its camera to scout or track a moving target can lose that capability even if the airframe stays intact. A shorter effect still needs a good track. Donaghey describes disabling a sensor in milliseconds. The system still has to find and track a small, maneuvering drone. Match the defense to the threat. Donaghey sees a role for pulsed lasers against small, sensor-dependent drones arriving in volume. He explains why a larger drone flying toward a fixed target calls for a different response. The economics go beyond the cost of a shot. A laser’s size, weight, power demand, and cost shape where it can be deployed and how many systems a defender can put in place. A demonstration proves an effect. Production proves you can build it again. Donaghey describes the move from optical-table setups to production-representative prototypes, with scaled production as the next goal. Timestamped Highlights [00:00] - Why directed energy is back in the conversation [00:32] - The “wicked problem” of cheap drone swarms that don’t depend on a radio link [03:21] - From teaching nuclear reactor physics to Wall Street, SAIC, and Applied Energetics [07:23] - Why small, fast drones arriving in numbers strain existing defenses [08:47] - From fiber-guided drones to drones that find targets on their own [11:06] - How an ultrashort pulse can disable a camera sensor [15:55] - Why holding a beam on a maneuvering drone is hard [18:33] - Where pulsed lasers fit in a layered defense, and where other systems are needed [20:32] - The cost of defending against cheap drones and the role of commercial optical fiber [22:39] - From outdoor demonstrations to prototypes that can be built repeatedly Resources & Links Applied Energetics The Startup Defense Connect Guest: Chris Donaghey on LinkedIn Host: Callye Keen on LinkedIn “There is no silver bullet to this problem.” — Chris Donaghey, 18:33 Subscribe to The Startup Defense for conversations with the people building and bringing defense technology to the field.





