The US ground Forces will receive a Stryker combat vehicle from Raytheon Corporation this year, equipped with a laser capable of dealing with a variety of threats. Its capacity will be 50 kilowatts. Previously, such weapons found their use on ships of the American Navy.
The first set of Stryker combat vehicles equipped with 50-kilowatt laser weapons will be delivered to Fort Sill (Oklahoma) by the end of September. This is reported by Defense News.
The military named its short-range air defense system Guardian. Last spring, at the White Sands missile range (New Mexico), its prototype was tested against various UAVs, missiles, artillery shells and artillery mines. The Ground Forces want to conduct additional tests this month. The tests will last until the beginning of February.
The servicemen have already passed on to the command some comments about the operation of the system. Based on these reviews, the developers have made improvements to the Guardian.
Another defense giant, Northrop Grumman, competed with Raytheon in developing a laser module for the US Army. However, he had technical difficulties: during tests at the end of last year, a fire started. The problems persisted in 2022, so Northrop dropped out before the demonstration.
The Raytheon team successfully started demonstrating its system, and the military decided to use its prototypes. The company has already received a contract for the supply of complexes in the amount of 123 million dollars.
Raytheon is among the leaders in this direction. Earlier, its specialists created a combat laser to equip AH-64 Apache attack helicopters by order of the US Department of Defense. In 2017, successful tests of the system were reported at the White Sands missile range.
Testing of the laser complex
Image Source: Wikipedia
It is also known that the United States has been hatching the idea of arming its fighters with laser weapons for a long time. We are talking about a whole set of different systems. Some of them can be used to defeat aircraft and anti-aircraft missiles threatening the aircraft. They want to use more powerful lasers, including for the destruction of UAVs and manned aircraft.
Among the winged vehicles that will receive such capabilities are the fifth-generation F-35 and F-22 fighters, as well as promising sixth-generation fighters . The mid-decade was named as the time frame for testing the systems.
