Lasers To Kill Cruise Missiles Sought By Navy, Air Force, Army
Impressed by tests against low-flying drones, the services are collaborating to increase both power and precision to take on tougher threats.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on October 29, 2019 at 5:35 PM
AOC 2019: The Pentagon is pushing to double the power output of lasers, to over 300 kilowatts, so they can defeat a threat found in arsenals from the Russian army to the Chinese navy to Iran: cruise missiles.
“The current technology for laser sources is in that 100-150 kw class,†said Frank Peterkin, a senior scientist at the Office of Naval Research. “It’s not enough. Even if you take all the other elements of a laser weapon and have them be perfect†– the targeting, the cooling, the beam control — “we still don’t have enough power. It’s a common enough problem, it makes sense to [approach] it in a joint fashion,†Peterkin continued. “OSD’s Dr. Karr…. is leading a joint DoD-wide initiative to scale up power levels, because we all need more power.â€
https://breakingdefense.com/2019/10/lasers-to-kill-cruise-missiles-sought-by-navy-air-force-army/
