The Coming Laser Wars?

The Coming Laser Wars?

Why future conflicts could be full of “light.”

However, the U.S. Army is has since been pursuing a ground-based version of HELLADS. The ten-kilowatt HEL-Mobile Demonstrator mounted on an Army HEMTT truck—the largest type in service—proved effective in trials at shooting down drones and sixty-millimeter mortar rounds. A more powerful sixty-kilowatt combined fiber laser known as the HEL-MTT was tested in March 2017. This device brings together multiple laser beams via fiber-optic cables, making the weapon scalable by adding additional cables. Eventually, the Army hopes to ramp up to a hundred-kilowatt laser, which might guarantee timely destruction of heavier projectiles.

Separately, in May 2017 the Army tested a five-kilowatt drone-killing laser mounted on an eight-wheeled Stryker armored personnel carrier in an air-defense trial at Fort Sill. The mobile armored laser shot down twenty-one of twenty-three drone targets in what was billed as a realistic exercise. A powered-up ten-kilowatt version, with greater range and hitting power, will be tested in November.

Numerous earlier attempts at developing laser weapons such as the THEL and ABL lasers failed, not because they couldn’t destroy their targets, but because they were too bulky and short range to be practical. However, contemporary programs appear to be addressing the problems of size and mobility, and several are likely to enter service early in the next decade—with similar systems entering service in Russia and China.

Although laser weapons may see some offensive applications, it appears their primary function will remain defensive: countering the growing threat posed by long-range missiles and drones, as well as reducing the mayhem caused by old-fashioned mortars and rocket artillery.

Sébastien Roblin holds a master’s degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring.

Image: A pilot looks up from a U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter as it prepares to refuel mid-air with a KC-135 refuelling plane during a flight to Britain from Mihail Kogalniceanu air base in Romania, April 25, 2016. REUTERS/Toby Melville.