A new piece of technology is here to upgrade military weaponry, and it has been launched by aerospace and defense contractor Lockheed Martin.
The company dispatched an Airborne High Energy Laser (AHEL) to the Air Force in the US. It will be used by combining it with a Lockheed AC-130 which is a heavily armed long-endurance gunship.
Rick Cordaro, the vice president of Lockheed Martin Advanced Production Solutions, said in a statement that the “technology is ready for fielding today.”
Before it is fixed with the gunship, the AHEL will have to go through ground testing and trials first to clear out any dysfunctionalities.
The beginning of the trials and tests of this weapon, 60-kilowatt HELIOS (High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance) is yet to be determined. This was reported according to Defense Daily. However, the commercial production will be done in 2022.
This news was followed when the United States Army announced it is developing a powerful new laser weapon that will be able to rapidly fire metal-vaporizing pulses like a machine gun.
This is a new and giant leap for the US Air Force, that enables the aircraft to launch an attack without making even an iota of a sound. If the mechanism turns out to be practical and feasible, it will serve as a tremendous tactical advantage for the army.