US Army to Test Powerful New Truck-Mounted Laser ‘Within Months’
An illustration of a laser mounted aboard an experimental laser test truck.
By Patrick Tucker Read bio
March 16, 2017
New solid-state lasers plus ever-more-powerful mobile generators brings directed energy weapons a big step closer to reality.
Progress in battlefield lasers is exceeding some of the most optimistic expectations of just a few years ago. The latest evidence comes from Lockheed Martin, which on Thursday announced a new record:: 58 kilowatts of direct power from a solid-state fiber laser. Lockheed will send it to the Army in a matter of months for testing on a High Energy Laser Mobile Test Truck, or HELMTT, according to Lockheed’s Robert Afzal, a senior fellow for laser and sensor systems. But Afzal says that the scalability of the laser opens up use on everything from drones to massive ships and at different levels of power.
http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2017/03/us-army-test-powerful-new-truck-mounted-laser-within-months/136239/?oref=d-river
