Lockheed Martin this week showed that a 50kW laser being developed for air defense scenarios can be turned on to create a coherent beam, a milestone the defense giant calls "first light."

The 50kW-class Directed Energy Interceptor for Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense System, referred to as DEIMOS among those who'd rather not repeat that entire description every time the subject arises, is expected to be integrated, eventually, into a Stryker combat vehicle.

DEIMOS is intended for M-SHORAD, which for those not keeping up on military acronyms is a reference to the US Army's maneuver-short range air defense mission. Think armored vehicles moving about and firing laser beams at threats in the sky.

Last February, Lockeed Martin and the US Office of Naval Research showed that this might be a feasible scenario when
a fixed laser battery took out a surrogate cruise missile - really, it was a plane acting the part of a cruise missile.

Rick Cordaro, VP of Lockheed Martin Advanced Product Solutions, described DEIMOS as another important way in which Lockheed Martin can provide the US Army with layered air defense capabilities.

"DEIMOS has been tailored from our prior laser weapon successes to affordably meet the Army's larger modernization strategy for air and missile defense and to improve mission success with 21st Century Security solutions," he said.

The US Army reportedly had hoped to move the program from the lab into the field by this year, but it looks like that will have to wait until 2025 or so.

According to a July 23, 2020 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report [PDF], SHORAD units were historically embedded within army units to defend against planes and helicopters, but were shifted to the Air Force two decades ago.

Since 2005, however, the proliferation of drones and precision missile and artillery systems in conflict zones has revived concerns about troop vulnerability, and has prompted the Army to revisit its SHORAD capabilities. Anyone who has seen video from the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine of
soldiers stalked by drones and loitering munitions should recognize why more sophisticated tactical air defense options are being explored.

The Defense Department's 2022 National Defense Strategy [PDF] and the House Armed Services Committee’s bipartisan Future of Defense Task Force Report have both identified directed energy weapons as a national security interest, a November 14, 2022 CRS report [PDF] explains.

Consequently, quite a bit of cash has been sought for developing directed energy weapons - in FY2023, the Pentagon asked for at least $669 million for unclassified directed energy weapon development and at last $345 million for unclassified directed energy weapon procurement.

One rationale for such spending is that directed energy weapons - we're talking high-energy lasers (HELs) and high-powered microwave (HPM) systems but not more speculative projects involving particle beams - could cost less to fire than kinetic weapons and wouldn't require reloading.

During his brief time as Prime Minister of Israel, Naftali Bennett last year claimed that the nation's Iron Beam laser interception system successfully shot down a missile, at a cost of $3.50 per shot. That's significantly less expensive than the PAC-3 missiles used in the Patriot air defense system, which cost $4 million a piece.

Cost-per-shot figures based on sustained deployment in a war zone will have to wait until these weapons mature and it's clear just how many tons of batteries or other fuel sources have to be hauled about to make them functional for some specified period of time, not to mention staffing and maintenance.

The 2022 CRS report noted that while there's no consensus on the power levels required to take out specific targets, analysts have estimated that a 100kW laser would be required to neutralize drones, small boats, artillery, and mortars while it would take about 300kW to disable a cruise missile and about 1MW to destroy ballistic missiles and hypersonic weapons.

Last September, Lockheed Martin announced it can provide a 300kW laser for laboratory and field testing.

Lockheed Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2023/01/26/lockheed_martin_lights_up_50kw/