| Summary: | Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited === The development of a speed-of-light hard-kill weapon system for military applications represents a significant advancement in technology over present conventional kinetic weapon systems. Over the past two decades, the US Navy has successfully developed a megawatt-class chemical laser; however, under some maritime environments, the high power beam propagation was unable to delivery sufficient energy to kill a modern anti-ship missile (ASM) due to significant atmospheric absorption and the resulting thermal blooming process. A critical problem to resolve for the shipboard high-energy laser weapon systems is to develop a shipboard-compatible megawatt-class laser weapon at a wavelength where the atmospheric absorption is smallest. The megawatt-class Free Electron Laser (EEL) has significant advantages over conventional weapon systems and other chemical high-energy laser systems. Infinite magazine, rapid response, and wavelength tunability make the EEL a suitable and desirable shipboard weapon system. This thesis divides into four chapters. Chapters I and II introduce the EEL and background theory of the EEL. Chapter III explores the analysis of the LANL Regenerative MW EEL Amplifier design and optimizes its efficiency. Lastly, chapter IV summarizes the feasibility of achieving the desired efficiency
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