The Army will finally stand up a laser-equipped Stryker platoon next month
Here comes the laser platoon.
BY JARED KELLER | PUBLISHED DEC 6, 2022 2:33 PM
An After years in development and months of delays, the Army will finally stand up a platoon of four Stryker fighting vehicles outfitted with prototype laser weapons next month.
The first prototype platoon, which will consist of Directed Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense (DE M-SHORAD) Stryker vehicles outfitted with 50-kilowatt laser weapons dubbed the ‘Guardian,’ is “set to arrive” at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in January, a spokesman for the Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) told Task & Purpose.
The Army’s RCCTO has “initiated the prototype New Equipment Training (pNET) and New Equipment Fielding (pNEF) for the first DE M-SHORAD prototype platoon,” the spokesman said.
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The fielding of the 50-kW DE M-SHORAD system comes after then-RCCTO chief Lt. Gen. Neil Thurgood promised in August that the new laser-equipped Strykers would be delivered to an air defense battery at Fort Sill “within the next 45 days,” or by October 2022.
https://taskandpurpose.com/tech-tactics/army-de-m-shorad-platoon-fielding/
