The Army has inked a contract with protection large Lockheed Martin for a platoon’s price of what can be the U.S. navy’s strongest laser weapon system so far, the corporate introduced Tuesday.
Developed below the Army’s Oblique Fireplace Safety Functionality-Excessive Vitality Laser (IFPC-HEL) prototype program and dubbed “Valkyrie,” the system can generate lasers at as much as 300 kW of energy and was designed to supply safety for U.S. troops in opposition to incoming unmanned aerial programs, munitions and, most significantly, cruise missiles, in keeping with the service’s fiscal 2024 funds request.
The Valkyrie’s 300 kW energy capability is a serious improve over different laser weapons within the Protection Division’s arsenal. For comparability, the Army’s Stryker vehicle-mounted Directed Vitality Maneuver-Brief Vary Air Protection (DE M-SHORAD) system, dubbed “Guardian,” solely reaches 50 kW of energy. That is nonetheless sufficient to counter incoming drones, rotary-wing plane, and rockets, artillery and mortars (RAM).
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Equally, the Navy’s Excessive Vitality Laser with Built-in Optical-dazzler and Surveillance system, or HELIOS, at present mounted aboard a number of of the service’s Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, solely generates round 60 kW energy, simply sufficient to knock out small watercraft however not sufficient to burn via the nostril cones of incoming cruise missiles.
Lockheed Martin will ship 4 Valkyrie programs to the Army below the brand new contract. In keeping with an August 2023 report from the Congressional Analysis Service, the service expects to take supply of these programs within the third quarter of fiscal 2025.
In sensible phrases, the Valkyrie will present protection in opposition to a wide range of incoming airborne threats to U.S. troops, from now-ubiquitous drones to fast-moving missiles, ideally with a near-unlimited journal and meant superior precision and accuracy in comparison with standard weapons like a standard-issue M4 carbine.
In consequence, the Valkyrie is ostensibly the primary laser air protection system within the U.S. navy’s arsenal to probably supply dependable safety in opposition to the varieties of cruise missiles utilized by adversaries like Russia and China, issues over which have fueled elevated emphasis (and, in flip, spending) on directed power weapons for missile protection lately.
The Army has requested $85.85 million from Congress for the IFPC-HEL program in fiscal 2024, in keeping with funds paperwork. The service obtained $215.34 million for the trouble in its fiscal 2023 funds after lawmakers added an extra $40 million in funding to this system.
Lockheed Martin had beforehand delivered a 300 kW laser system developed below the Pentagon’s Excessive Vitality Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI) to the Army in September 2022 to be used as an preliminary IFPC-HEL demonstrator, and the corporate is at present working below that program to finally scale to a 500 kW system.
The Army’s contract with Lockheed Martin comes because the service pushes ahead on the event of laser weapons programs throughout varied platforms. The service fielded a platoon of 4 laser-toting DE M-SHORAD Strykers in September and reportedly plans on affixing a 20 kW laser weapon on its new Infantry Squad Automobile (ISV) assault buggy.
Presently, the Army’s myriad laser programs aren’t simply getting a exercise at testing ranges throughout america. In August, Army Maj. Gen. Sean Gainey, director of the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Plane Programs Workplace, revealed that the service had deployed unspecified 10 kW laser programs to U.S. Central Command, U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command areas of duty for “operational assessments,” as Breaking Protection reported on the time.
However regardless of the tactical advantages supplied by cell laser programs, current operational testing has revealed a serious problem to their widespread adoption: Specifically, they are a ache for troopers to take care of in distant and austere areas, as Gainey informed reporters on the time.
“[From a] coaching perspective and a company perspective, issues are continuing comparatively shortly,” Gainey stated of the Army’s laser efforts. “But it surely’s the sustaining facet that we’ve got to do higher if we need to scale this throughout the drive.”
— Jared Keller may be reached at Jared.Keller@navy.com.
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