US Military Aims to Build World’s Most Powerful High-Energy Laser Weapon

The US military has commissioned General Atomics and Boeing to cooperatively develop the world’s most powerful military laser.

The contract was issued by the US Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) with the objective that a demonstration of the design of a 300kW-class solid-state Distributed Gain High Energy Laser Weapon System would be the end result.

General Atomics will be responsible for developing the laser, while Boeing will look to integrate the beam director to the 300 kW-class distributed gain laser.

“The high power, compact laser weapon subsystem prototype that GA-EMS will deliver under this contract will produce a lethal output greater than anything fielded to date," Scott Forney, president of General Atomics president, said in a statement.

In 2014, the US Navy deployed a 30 kW laser system, and last year they demonstrated a 150 kW system. A 300 kW laser system would represent a massive leap forward in the technology, and is deemed necessary to keep pace with China’s rapidly-developing hypersonic missile systems.

US Joint Chiefs of Staff General John Hyten, said China has done hundreds of hypersonic missile tests. Government scientists have quipped that these missiles “defy the laws of physics” and have the ability to dodge US missile defense systems. The development of a 300 kW laser has defense against these projectile threats in mind.

Forney noted that “this technology represents a leap-ahead capability for air and missile defense that is necessary to support the Army’s modernization efforts and defeat next-generation threats in a multi-domain battlespace.”

Through batteries and power grids these laser defense systems could be highly mobile, providing the US with a crucial defense advantage against hypersonic enemy missiles.