June 23, 2019
F-35s Armed with Laser Cannons? It Could Happen Soon.
Here's how.
by Sebastien Roblin
The United States is not in planning for integration of aerial lasers in the 2020s and 2030s. The Franco-German FCAS and British Tempest stealth fighter programs, and the Russian MiG-41 interceptor have explicitly claimed in their program materials the conceptual aircraft will be built to support directed-energy weapons (DEWs). Furthermore, the Japanese F-3 and the Typhoon’s engines will also include a turbo-generator create and manage additional electricity—quite likely to power DEWs.
On April 23, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) tested a fiber-optic laser at the White Sands Test Range in New Mexico that successfully shot down “multiple air-launched missiles in flight.â€
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/f-35s-armed-laser-cannons-it-could-happen-soon-63772
