The Pentagon kills language. Housing the brain and central coordinating organs of the most advanced military the world has ever known, the Depart of Defense headquarters can take an announcement as exciting as “the U.S. Army is working on laser guns” and distill it to, in the words of Mary J. Miller, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Research and Technology, “aligned to transition into a program of record in the fiscal 2023 timeframe.” Make no mistake: bland phrasing aside, the Army is going to fund laser weapon development in the next decade.
What's the best way to shoot down a drone? For many in the defense industry, the solution to flying robots is as futuristic as the threat itself: lasers. Yesterday Boeing released video of its “Compact Laser Weapons System” destroying a drone. Like other directed energy weapons, the laser focuses light to burn a hole through its target. Here, watch it burn through the tail of a drone at “a tactical range”:
If lasers are the future of war, the Army wants to make sure it gets them right. The dirt-stopping branch of America's armed forces already has the HEL-MD laser-armed truck in development. Made by Boeing, the HEL-MD successfully destroyed mortar rounds and drones in flight in 2013. Now, to hedge their bets and make sure they get a working laser weapon, the Army is looking to Lockheed to create another laser, in case the HEL-MD doesn't work.
Call it an instance of science fiction begetting science fiction. Physicist Adam Weigold wants to build a laser weapon that he believes might change the face of warfare should the U.S. find itself tangling militarily with a certain people's republic across the Pacific at some point in the near future. And to fund the research for said weapon, Weigold is releasing a science fiction novel about - wait for it - the U.S. tangling militarily with a certain people's republic across the Pacific in the near future.
