DooKey
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2001
- Messages
- 13,576
The Air Force Research Lab Self-Protect High Energy Laser demonstrator program plans to have a solid-state laser system that can be mounted on an aircraft by 2021. Lockheed is going to adapt the laser system they provided to the Army to enable an aircraft to defend itself from ground-to-air and air-to-air missiles. If this technology works out it won't matter if an aircraft has stealth or not since it will be able to shoot down anything launched against it. This just goes to show sci-fi turns into real science more and more often as time goes by.
If Lockheed can deliver, the Air Force gets a weapon that’s not just lighter and (likely) cheaper than equivalent missile and machine gun systems, but one that could change how it deploys its fighters. If you’re packing a missile-killing laser, you can go places and do things that now demand the sort of extremely expensive stealth tech of the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning.
If Lockheed can deliver, the Air Force gets a weapon that’s not just lighter and (likely) cheaper than equivalent missile and machine gun systems, but one that could change how it deploys its fighters. If you’re packing a missile-killing laser, you can go places and do things that now demand the sort of extremely expensive stealth tech of the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning.