Army to test 50 kW lasers mounted on Strykers
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This technology will give the Army much greater protection against enemy drones and close air support. It will also likely be useful in attacking fixed defensive positions.
The Army is preparing to incinerate enemy weapons “targets” in an upcoming in a “laser-off” firing of its emerging Stryker-armed 50-kilowatt laser weapon designed to destroy drones, helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and incoming enemy missiles.
The Stryker-fired laser, in development for several years, is part of the Army’s fast-developing Initial Maneuver Short Range Air Defense (IM-SHORAD) program designed to bring air-and-missile defense back to armored vehicles on the move in combat.
The program will deliver 50 kilowatt (kW)-class lasers on a platoon of four Stryker vehicles in Fiscal Year 2022, an Army report stated.
"The time is now to get directed energy weapons to the battlefield," Lt. Gen. Neil Thurgood, Director of Hypersonics, Directed Energy, Space and Rapid Acquisition, said in an Army report. "The Army recognizes the need for directed energy lasers as part of the Army's modernization plan. This is no longer a research effort or a demonstration effort. It is a strategic combat capability, and we are on the right path to get it in Soldiers' hands.
Northrop Grumman and Raytheon, are subcontractors in an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreement between the Army and Kord Technologies, an Army report stated.
The Army is setting an ambitious time-table for deploying laser weapons on Strykers, an approach that is indicative of a broad Army push to better expedite weapons delivery. The service expects to have operational lasers ready to deploy on Strykers by 2022, if not earlier. The strategy is to harvest and deliver mature weapons systems on an accelerated time frame while of course preserving the steps and key procedures necessary for successful deployment. This strategy is, not surprisingly, driven by the current threat scenario.
“It is all about the ability to put photons on target. It is a system that can be deployed rapidly from a stowed position. It can engage an enemy at the speed of light. It has to be able to shoot from a moving platform and engage a moving target through an air column that can be full of rain, dust or turbulence -- and hold that energy on target long enough to get the desired effect,” Mark Skinner, Vice President of Directed Energy, Northrop Grumman, told Warrior.