Air Force prepares to test pod-mounted laser weapons for fighters:
"As the United States attempts to close the capability gap presented by Russian and
Chinese hypersonic missiles, another (even faster) weapon is quickly making its way
toward operational service on American fighter jets: lasers.
It may sound like science fiction, but with weapon systems like the AN/SEQ-3 Laser
Weapon System (also known as the XN-1 LaWS) already completing successful tests
aboard U.S. Navy vessels and the Navy investing another $150 million into Lockheed
Martin’s high energy laser system for deployment on Arleigh Burke-class guided missile
destroyers in the coming years, it seems the world may soon be entering into an era of
directed-energy weapons finding increasing relevance in ordinary combat operations.
“Laser weapons offer war-fighters opportunities for quick and precise target
engagement, flexibility and lighter and more responsive support logistics,” Eva Blaylock,
spokeswoman for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), told Warrior Maven. The
laboratory has been leading the way in the effort to miniaturize laser weapon
technology sufficiently to make it both small enough and light enough to be carried
aboard military aircraft. Unlike the now defunct Boeing YAL-1, which used a large
chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) housed inside a 747 airliner to shoot down ballistic
missiles, these new weapons will be compact enough to be carried by aircraft like the
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, though admittedly, they anticipate testing these weapons
aboard C-130 and C-17 airframes first, before moving on to smaller platforms."
See:
https://thenewsrep.com/116229/air-fo...-for-fighters/