United States Army Will Have High-Tech Laser Weapons By 2020

Initial trials of laser weapon revealed  ‘unprecedented power’ of system

The US Army is planning to deploy the first laser weapons in 2023, it has been revealed.  Mary J. Miller, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Research and Technology, told the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities ‘I believe we’re very close,’ when asked how close the Army is to developing offensive and defensive directed-energy weapons.

She said the programs would be extensively tested  as the Army wants to understand the lasers’ full capabilities ‘before we offer it to a Soldier.’  ‘It’s being done in a ‘step-wise demonstration of capability,’ she said.

U.S. Air Force testing lasers on fighter jets:

‘We have to make sure the lasers work and do the full set of scopes against the threats we project. And those threats include the counter-rockets, counter-artillery and counter-mortar as well as [Unmanned Aerial Vehicle] and cruise missile threats.’

Miller explained that the Army wants to understand the lasers’ full capabilities ‘before we offer it to a Soldier.’

Operators need to trust what lasers can do, she added. ‘Lasers have been promised for a long time, but they’ve never held up and delivered what was asked for, so the operators are rightfully skeptical,’ she pointed out.

‘That’s why the Army is taking lasers out into operational environments and testing them. In the meantime, ‘there will be steps along the way where we spin off lesser capable laser systems that can do good things on smaller platforms.

‘Those will come out soon.’

The Air Force said it was already flying prototype weapons.

Dr. David Walker, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for Science, Technology and Engineering, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, said the Air Force is working with Special Operations Command to develop an offensive laser that will be fitted to AFSOC AC-130 gunships.

Part of that technology, he said, includes ‘beam-steering and power and thermal management.’

‘The Air Force is flying every day with lasers under its transport aircraft, using them as infrared countermeasure system,’ so we too spun off lesser-capable laser systems and as we get larger power outputs and better thermal management out of smaller package lasers, we will build those powers into defensive to offensive capability as well,’ Walker said.

The Navy’s science representative described similar laser programs for ships, subs and Marines.

Air Force bosses have previously boasted combat lasers will be fitted to fighters planes by 2020.

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, is on track to demonstrate a working laser weapon on a fighter jet by 2020, it has revealed. source

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