Fast-developing High Energy Laser weapons are increasingly able to expand the attack envelope for Army ground units facing enemy air attacks
Fast-developing High Energy Laser weapons are increasingly able to expand the attack envelope for Army ground units facing enemy air attacks
By Kris Osborn - President, Center for Military Modernization
(Washington D.C.) Army Strykers recently incinerated incoming mortar fire and drones with a vehicle-fired 50kW laser weapon, breaking new ground with the fast-developing High Energy Laser weapon increasingly able to expand the attack envelope for ground units facing enemy air attacks.
Drone attacks, precision artillery, helicopter weapons, fixed-wing threats and mortar fire are all clear dangers to a moving armored formation such as a maneuvering Stryker Infantry Brigade Combat Team closing with an enemy. However, the troubling realization among many Army ground war leaders following the 15 years of counterinsurgency in the War on Terrorism, is that the US Army’s Cold War Air Defense readiness had severely “atrophied” while fighting in environments with little to no air threat.
Directed Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense
The Army’s Directed Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense, called DE M-SHORAD, is a fast-evolving, cutting edge effort to address this deficit. The DE M-SHORAD destroyed drones and 60mm mortars during a key operational assessment of the HEL weapon at White Sands Missile Range, NM. Made by Raytheon, the HEL is engineered with an “automated queuing” from electro-optical/infrared sensors and scalable power levels.
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While a few prototype laser weapons themselves have been tested, especially on Navy ships, for many years now, emerging technology is changing the kinds of mission possibilities the weapons can perform. The military services and their industry partners like Raytheon have been working on software refinements, upgrades and enhancement to improve operational functionality. Part of this includes using new software to enhance the fire-control interface for the laser, something which could be used to increase precision, scale effects or increase power depending upon mission demands, Raytheon weapons developers told Warrior.
Much of the innovation has been oriented toward engineering mobile sources of transportable electrical power sufficient to generate and sustain operational effectiveness.
An interesting Army report on the laser says the design of the DE M-SHORAD leverages the Stryker's gas-powered engine to energize its batteries, cooling system, and laser. The self-contained system has enough electricity to address multiple threats at a time before needing a period to recharge.
Gen. John Murray, former Commanding General of Army Futures Command says the Army has in recent years been addressing these challenges and making rapid progress integrating mobile electrical power on combat vehicles.
“If you are putting it on a ship, I mean, you’ve got the room and you’ve got the power. If you are putting it in a fixed facility, you can build the room and the power. The problem becomes how do you make these things mobile,” Murray said last year.
Raytheon’s efforts seem to align with Murrays. Raytheon weapons developers explain, when it comes to electrical power sufficient to generate lasers, what used to require a refrigerator-sized generator now can be done in a shoebox size. Engineering a smaller form-factor by increasing efficiency and energy density. With this kind of engineering, large amounts of exportable power necessary to support a 50Kw laser can be compressed into a smaller size, making it better able to integrate into a moving vehicle such a Stryker.
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Adding new precision air-defense firepower to Strykers does further enable multi-domain operations, as it gives a fast-moving Stryker unit the ability to engage and take out air-threats while on the move. This aligns with large amounts of current Pentagon work, including major Army efforts, to stand up multi-domain task-force units for testing, experimentation and rapid development.
By being able to engage enemy drones, helicopters and even some fixed-wing enemy targets, air-defense lasers greatly improve air-ground tactical attack. Also, perhaps of even greater significance, Stryker-fire lasers could intercept incoming enemy air-missile attacks. As part of this mission, they do have some characteristics which could be described as stealthy. Unlike the explosive effect of firing a kinetic weapon such as a Stinger or Hellfire, a laser is quiet. It does of course give off a light signature, but that is potentially much less detectable than the sound of a missile firing, thus enabling a Stryer to avoid giving up its position.
Lasers can also function as optical sensors able to identify or paint targets for other weapons. This kind of technology also contributes to multi-domain operations because, as platforms increasingly become more networked, air platforms such as drones and surveillance planes will be able to more quickly share targeting information which ground combat assets such as Strykers; this quickens the sensor-to-shooter kill chain and gives attacking forces a better opportunity to get ahead of an enemies’ decision cycle. It further enables tactical combat maneuver as ground attack vehicles can better interoperate with air attack, cueing drones on attack targets or receiving combat-relevant ISR in real time -- with much less latency.
Army Strykers armed with lasers and other air-defense weapons are changing the Army to rethink its armored vehicle formations and rapidly integrate methods of incorporated unmanned systems -- ground and air drones -- into armored vehicle maneuver. The presence of new weapons of this kind might enable mobile units to hit enemies faster, add precision, and in some cases lower collateral damage. In a heavily populated urban area, for instance, firing a missile interceptor might cause a larger, more dangerous explosion; firing a laser which slowly burns a hole through the metal of an enemy air target can decrease fragmentation and tailor the timing of when an enemy asset is ultimately disabled. As part of this attack envelope, lasers are scalable. Several beams can be merged for a stronger impact, and its strength can be adjusted, enabling attackers with a range of options to include destroying or merely disabling a target. So while the initial weapon is slated as 50kw, the power will likely go up as technology allows.
Lasers also bring the substantial advantage of staying ahead of the “cost curve,” making them easier to use repeatedly. In many instances, low-cost lasers could destroy targets instead of expensive interceptor missiles.
Furthermore, mobile-power technology, targeting algorithms, beam control and thermal management technologies are all progressing quickly, a scenario which increases prospects for improved laser applications in coming years. Fire-control oriented computer algorithms could quickly merge sensor data with targeting information and tactical details to give Strykers an ability to find and hit targets much more efficiently, and potentially at farther ranges.
Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics& Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
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