Lockheed Martin has been awarded with a 26 million dollar contract to design and build high-energy laser weapon systems for U.S. Air Force planes.
The U.S. is finally taking a page from Star Wars and is now looking to equip its fighter planes with high-energy lasers. Defense contractor Lockheed Martin has won a $23.6 million contract to design a laser that will fit on a fighter jet. The deal is part of the U.S. Air Force's Self-protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) program, meant to create lasers that can shoot anti-aircraft missiles out of the sky. The company delivered a 60-kilowatt laser for U.S. Army ground vehicles early this year, and will produce a smaller system to test on tactical aircraft by 2021.
Previous high energy lasers were cumbersome, delicate weapons that needed large quantities of toxic chemicals to produce a useful laser beam. Today's fiber lasers are dramatically smaller and more rugged, making them much more suitable for military applications. Airborne laser weapons can defend against threats from enemy missiles, boosting the self-defense capabilities of military jets.
The most likely candidates to carry the defensive laser are older fighters that are less survivable on today's battlefield, including the F-15C, the F-15E Strike Eagle, and F-16 Fighting Falcon. While the system is designed for fighter planes, it has obvious applications protecting aircraft transport aircraft such as the C-130 Hercules transport, KC-135 Stratotanker, and older B-52 bombers. The Lockheed Martin laser is one of three subsystems that make up the SHiELD program. A beam control system is being developed by Northrop Grumman, while a pod to power and cool the laser is being designed by Boeing.