Army picks Lockheed Martin Aculight to build prototype 300-kilowatt laser weapons to defend against rockets
REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – U.S. Army aerial defense experts needed a company to develop prototype 300-kilowatt laser weapons to protect soldiers and installations from rockets and aircraft. They found their solution from Lockheed Martin Corp.
Officials of the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., announced a $220.8 million contract last month to Lockheed Martin Aculight in Bothell, Wash., for the Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL) Prototypes project.
High-energy laser weapons significantly help the Army defend against low-cost threats on the modern battlefield. The IFPC-HEL project calls for Lockheed Martin Aculight to develop enabling technologies to help Army leaders protect fixed and semi-fixed sites from rockets, artillery, mortars, UAVs, helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, and similar threats.
The company will pursue enabling technologies for prototype 300-kilowatt laser weapons to disable or destroy these kinds of battlefield threats. Laser weapons prototypes will be at least as powerful as 250 kilowatts.
Related: High-energy laser weapons ready for the front lines
This effort will provide as many as four complete laser weapons that comprise beam control, beam director, battle management, power, and thermal management integrated onto an Army-furnished platform that incorporates an Army-directed laser weapon.
The aerial defense laser weapon systems prototypes will be delivered as early as summer 2024 for live range testing. Army leaders say they may award additional contracts to additional companies to deliver high-energy laser weapons prototypes.
On this contract Lockheed Martin Aculight will do the work in Bothell, Wash.; Moorestown, N.J.; Owego, N.Y.; Oldsmar and Orlando Fla.; Sunnyvale, Calif.; and Huntsville, Ala., and should be finished by October 2025.
For more information contact Lockheed Martin Aculight online at www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products.html, or the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office at https://rapidcapabilitiesoffice.army.mil.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
