Raytheon's 50-kilowatt laser has been chosen for the U.S. Army's directed energy short-range air defense system on a Stryker combat vehicle. The Army will initially outfit a platoon's worth of the system. (Artist rendering courtesy of Raytheon)
Defense News: Army readies to deliver first set of Strykers with 50-kilowatt laser weapons
WASHINGTON — The first set of Stryker combat vehicles equipped with 50-kilowatt laser weapons will be delivered to a unit of Army soldiers at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, by the end of September, according to the head of the service’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office.
The Army has dubbed its Directed Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense system “Guardian.” After testing its first prototype last spring at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, against one-, two-, and three-class unmanned aircraft systems and rockets, artillery and mortars, the service is planning to conduct more tests this month, Lt. Gen. L. Neil Thurgood said at a Jan. 12 event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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Update: The US Army to Deliver Its 50-kW Laser Combat Vehicles in 2022 (Interesting Engineering)
WNU Editor: Congress wants even more laser weapons .... Congress gives Missile Defense Agency authority to research and develop laser tech for missile defense (Defense News).
6 comments:
Gone are the days when this sort of tech was savagely ridiculed by the Dimwits after it was proposed by the Reagan administration back in the 1980s, forty years ago. Even worse, he championed a space-based anti-missile defense system which was quickly dubbed "Star Wars" by the Dimwits and their leftstream media lap dogs. Ha ha, what a stupid idea that was, ha ha. Of course, it was ahead of its time and so unlikely to work out of the box. But that's the obvious challenge faced when thinking OUTSIDE the box. Like we're finally doing now. Hopefully we can catch up with the Chinese and Russians, who didn't laugh back then.
This is why Russia and china put so much into hypersonic weapons. Of course light is faster than anything.
I'd much more like to see them closer to 100-kw.
Why 100-kw?
That is like worshipping a big number just because it is big. More wattage means more wear an tear. It means less availability on the battle field.
I want to know its range or effective range. Its up time. How many targets it can destroy at it effective range, What is its fire rate.
No, you've misunderstood. I said Closer to 100. From numerous articles I've read over the years it just seems to be a better range for killing things of the frequent size in a better amount of time.
Okay, I stand corrected.
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