Laser weapon

The UK's Ministry of Defence has ordered three laser and radio-frequency weapons demonstrators. It promises £130 million (US$162 million) to test and evaluate the next generation of Directed Energy Weapons with field trials expected to begin in 2023 on Royal Navy ships and British Army vehicles.

The US Marine Corps wants a new vehicle-mobile laser weapon system that is not only non-lethal to disorient and cause pain without injury, but can yell at people as far away as 1,000 m (3,300 ft).

The US Army is moving forward with a new 100-kW laser weapon, awarding US$10 million to Lockheed Martin and Dynetics to continue development of the High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstrator, the latest in the effort to produce incrementally more powerful and accurate directed energy weapons.

China says that it has developed a laser rifle that can "carbonize" human flesh at a range of 800 m (2,625 ft), yet weighs only 3 kg (6.6 lb) and can burn hair, skins, and signs, and even penetrate and set fire to fuel tanks.

When the first laser was invented, the idea of using it as a superweapon seemed like science fiction. Prototypes have been built, but the revolutionary destructive ray that would change the face of battle as fundamentally as the longbow or the airplane has yet to appear. Why? Let's find out.

An energy weapon system built by Raytheon clocked up an impressive score as it took out 45 UAVs and drones. Part of this year's Maneuver Fires Integrated Experiment, the test involved a directed energy weapon that combines Raytheon's high-power microwave beam and High Energy Laser (HEL) systems.

Lockheed Martin has won a US$150 million contract with options for another US$942 million to develop and manufacture two high-energy laser weapons for the US Navy. The new systems will combine Lockheed's first-of-a-kind HELIOS system for defense against UAVs with long-range ISR capabilities.

In a move that could revolutionize aerial combat, the US Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) has awarded Lockheed Martin a US$26.3 million contract to design, develop, and produce a high-power laser weapon that the AFRL wants to install and test on a tactical fighter jet by 2021.

Lockheed Martin is setting its laser sights on missiles. The US Missile Defense Agency has awarded the company a nine-month, US$9.4 million contract intended to produce a Low Power Laser Demonstrator (LPLD) missile interceptor concept capable of taking out an ICBM shortly after it lifts off.

It was 5-0 at the US Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico as a Lockheed Martin prototype laser weapon system shot down five unmanned drones with a 100 percent success rate. The August test was designed to demonstrate how the laser could decisively destroy unmanned aerial threats.

Laser weapons have been tested on ships, planes, and even armored vehicles, but Raytheon has pushed the envelope further again by successfully testing a high-energy laser mounted on an Apache AH-64 attack helicopter and locking onto and hitting an unmanned target.

​The US Army has mounted a weapon-grade Army laser on a combat vehicle for the first time. Earlier this month, the USASMDC/ARSTRAT fielded a Stryker assault vehicle armed with a 5-kW laser as part of the JIDO UAS Hard-Kill Challenge at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.