Jane Edwards
Lockheed Martin officials said the company considers equipping a sixth-generation fighter aircraft with a laser weapon built to counter aerial drones and sensors and disrupt enemies’ electronic equipment, USNI News reported Wednesday.
“What I’m really looking forward to is the next generation leap. That’s a sixth-gen fighter, where we not only take stealth and sensor integration, but we start adding things like directed energy weapons, drone swarm control,†said Tony Wilson, an F-35 test pilot at Lockheed.
Company officials presented at a media briefing Wednesday Lockheed’s High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance system, which is expected to be deployed aboard an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer in 2021.
Wilson said the company intends to reduce the size of HELIOS for possible integration into an airframe.
