Pentagon Makes New Push to Put a Laser Weapon on a Fighter Jet
Contract with Lockheed Martin comes as military leaders say they are ‘on the cusp’ of breakthrough
Lockheed in November secured a $26 million deal from the Pentagon to develop a laser for a supersonic F-15 jet capable of disabling a missile or drone from a mile or more away.. Air Force officials have said they want a laser weapon with an initial 50 kilowatts of power—some five times that of the largest industrial lasers—capable of destroying a target a mile or more away. The Pentagon hopes eventually to procure lasers with up to 100 or 150 kilowatts or power.Military leaders working with Lockheed rivals such as Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. have spent a quarter century and an estimated $8 billion testing lasers and other directed-energy systems such as microwaves. None has ever been fielded or advanced to production... a cheaper alternative to missiles that can be fired multiple times.. Now, defense companies are focusing on fiber lasers first developed for the telecommunications industry that amplify and focus light from hundreds of strands into a single beam... They burn up a hostile projectile’s electronic systems rather than destroy it like a missile... The energy cost of $1 to $5 a shot compares with $100,000 to $200,000 for a defensive missile.