US Air Force shoots multiple missiles from the sky with laser during test

The US Air Force Research Laboratory has defused several missiles with a laser weapon during a test. During the test, the laser weapon was on the ground; a smaller version should eventually be mounted on fighter jets.

DLSW

The Demonstrator Laser Weapon System was used for the test. This is a large laser weapon that stands on the ground and that serves as a test version of the final system to be mounted in aircraft. According to the lab, the test defused “several rockets” launched from the air. These are small rockets that are fired by fighter jets, for example.

Specific details are not disclosed by the Air Force, nor are there any images of the demonstration. According to the research lab, the successful demonstration is an important step in the development of the SHiELD system. That stands for Self-protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator. Under this heading, work is being done on laser weapons intended to protect fighter jets against missiles fired from the ground or from enemy fighter jets.

Lockheed Martin was awarded a contract in 2017 to develop light, compact and high-energy laser weapons for the SHiELD system. The manufacturer then said that the intention is to test laser weapons on fighter jets from 2021.

Laser weapons have been tested for years, but so far they are too large to integrate into fighter jets. In 2010, the United States Air Force laser fired a ballistic missile from the nose of a converted Boeing 747.

Not only the US Air Force is working on laser weapons. The army does that too. For example, two years ago, a laser weapon was tested on an Apache helicopter. The US Navy commissioned the LaWS system in 2014. This is a 30 kW laser weapon with a so-called solid state laser that ‘warms up’ targets with concentrated infrared light until they explode or burn.