Air Force to test laser weapons by 2021

From popular mechanics

Flying laser weapons are coming.

The US Air Force is on track to test its first airborne laser weapons by 2021. The lasers attached to fighter jets, drones or even cargo planes will attack targets on the ground and in the air at the speed of light, making assaults almost impossible. so that enemy forces can dodge.

The Air Force has long been interested in making laser weapons a reality. Lasers are ideal weapons for fighter jets – in theory at least – because the number of “shots” is limited only by the weapon's power supply. Additionally, each laser “shot” is relatively inexpensive compared to expensive missiles and other precision-guided munitions. Lasers also travel at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second, making them impossible to avoid.

Unfortunately, lasers are difficult to develop, especially if you're trying to create compact weapons powerful enough to damage or destroy enemy objects. But now, according to Warrior MavenThe Air Force Research Lab believes it will be able to install laser weapons on aircraft starting in 2021. Service will begin with larger C-130 and C-17 aircraft initially, then fighter jets such as the F- 15 and the F-35. once technology inevitably reduces the size of the weapon.

Indeed, new technologies are already at the origin of the laser weapons revolution. Older laser technologies, including COIL (chemical oxygen-iodine) chemical-based laser weapons, could generate megawatt-class beams, but they were large, cumbersome, and relied on potentially dangerous chemicals to function. Newer liquid, solid state And semiconductor the lasers are small enough that engineers are confident they will eventually find their way into airplanes.

Once in flight, the lasers will equip various aircraft. The most obvious and sci-fi application is an air-to-air laser weapon. This is probably the case and lasers will one day replace the internal guns of fighter jets and, depending on the limits of their power, they could also replace short-range missiles.

Lasers could also target ground targets, particularly combustible targets such as ballistic missile fuel tanks and enemy fuel depots. US special operations plans to place lasers on AC-130 gunships to augment their current arsenals of heavy machine guns and light cannons.

Laser weapons will become defensive tools for aircraft such as aerial tankers, AWACS airborne warning and control aircraft, cargo aircraft and bombers. A laser could shoot down (or at least blind) incoming air-to-air missiles, increasing survivability in conflicts with countries like Russia or China. China in particular is known for developing the PL-XX ultra-long range air-to-air missile designed to attack American support aircraft such as the E-3 AWAC and the KC-46A Pegasus tanker.

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