HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Military is attempting to combine a 20-kilowatt laser onto its GM Protection-made Infantry Squad Automobile that might probably destroy drone threats, in line with each the service’s Fast Capabilities and Vital Applied sciences Workplace and the corporate performing the mixing work.
This system, dubbed Military Multipurpose Excessive Power Laser, or AMP-HEL, would function a way to guard infantry brigade fight groups from small drones, L. Neil Thurgood, the tech workplace’s director, mentioned Aug. 10 on the Area and Missile Protection Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama.
SAIC is the lead integrator per an different transaction authority settlement that enables for speedy prototyping over a five-year interval, in line with Greg Fortier, the corporate’s vp of fires, aviation and missile protection. The corporate can also be concerned in integrating a palletized high-energy laser able to defeating small drones, he added.
That palletized laser system was developed along with the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Plane Methods Workplace, and it has already been demonstrated and deployed, Jeannie Sommer, deputy director of the Fast Capabilities and Vital Applied sciences Workplace, mentioned on the symposium.
That workplace can also be making ready to subject its first directed-energy short-range air protection methods — a 50-kilowatt laser mounted on a Stryker fight car — by the top of the fiscal yr, Sommer added.
The workplace can also be making ready to ship the primary prototypes of the Military’s Oblique Fires Safety Functionality-Excessive Power Laser system, which includes a truck-mounted, 300-kilowatt laser, by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024.
Dynetics, a Leidos firm, is the integrator for the IFPC-HEL effort. Main take a look at occasions are anticipated for the system later this yr.
The Military’s pursuit to counter small drones is heating up by way of directed-energy options, amongst different means, together with a brand new improvement: The service’s Air and Missile Protection Cross-Practical Workforce has taken on an effort to develop a functionality that may detect, observe and defeat small drones, Col. Pat Costello, the group’s new director, mentioned on a panel on the symposium.
Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist masking land warfare for Protection Information. She has additionally labored for Politico and Inside Protection. She holds a Grasp of Science diploma in journalism from Boston College and a Bachelor of Arts diploma from Kenyon Faculty.