Jane Edwards
Lockheed Martin has developed and tested for the U.S. Army a 60-kilowatt laser weapon system designed to help the service branch counter threats posed by drones, mortars and rockets.
Lockheed has initiated preparation work to facilitate the delivery of the fiber laser platform to the Army Space and Missile Defense Command in Alabama after it completed a demonstration of the system early this month, the company said Thursday.
The laser weapon system generated up to 58 kilowatts of single beam during the test.
Robert Afzal, a senior fellow for Lockheed’s laser and sensor systems business, the fiber laser is designed to be fielded on the service branch’s tactical vehicles for use in defensive aerial, maritime and ground applications.
The platform builds on a design created under the Defense Department’s Robust Electric Laser Initiative Program and works to generate a single laser beam through the combination of individual lasers produced through fiber optics.
Lockheed developed the fiber laser system under a potential $25 million contract the Army awarded in 2014.
