Army Special Forces Wants Lasers to Shoot Down Drones
February 11th, 2021Via: Nextgov:
The Army wants to protect Special Forces operators from unmanned aerial systems—better known as drones—by shooting them out of the sky with high-energy weapons—better known as lasers.
The Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office added a new section to its broad agency announcement vehicle for cutting-edge technologies, putting out a call under “Counter Unmanned Aerial System High Energy Laster,” or C-sUAS HEL.
“The primary opportunity and purpose of this effort is to integrate a government owned High Energy Laser subsystem with a power and thermal subsystem and sensor package to demonstrate increased lethality in negating sUAS,” the call states.
Using lasers—or even laser pointers—to take down drones is not a new idea, and the U.S. military has been working on high-energy laser systems for years. This latest effort would apply existing military research to countering small drones and develop a single system that could be deployed by Special Forces.
