Walker also said the Air Force is working with Special Operations Command to develop an offensive laser that will be fitted to AFSOC AC-130 gunships. The Air Force is flying every day with lasers under its transport aircraft, using them as infrared countermeasure system,' so we too spun off lesser-capable laser systems and as we get larger power outputs and better thermal management out of smaller package lasers, we will build those powers into defensive to offensive capability as well,' Walker said.

'We too have spun off lesser-capable laser systems,' he said, following Miller's remarks. David Walker, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for Science, Technology and Engineering, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, agreed with Miller's logic for step-wise rollouts. Those will come out soon,' she concluded.ĭr. In the meantime, 'there will be steps along the way where we spin off lesser capable laser systems that can do good things on smaller platforms. That's why the Army is taking lasers out into operational environments and testing them. 'Lasers have been promised for a long time, but they've never held up and delivered what was asked for, so the operators are rightfully skeptical,' she pointed out. Operators need to trust what lasers can do, she added. Miller explained that the Army wants to understand the lasers' full capabilities 'before we offer it to a Soldier.' And those threats include the counter-rockets, counter-artillery and counter-mortar as well as and cruise missile threats.'

'We have to make sure the lasers work and do the full set of scopes against the threats we project. It's already planned and funded.īecause it's being done in a 'step-wise demonstration of capability,' she said. Now, that effort has been 'aligned to transition into a program of record in the fiscal 2023 timeframe,' she said. That effort has been used in an analysis of alternatives for the Indirect Fire Protection Capability program of record. The Army's S&T effort is committed to pursuing high-energy lasers, she said.

Miller's topic was the Army's Science and Technology, or S&T, Program for fiscal year 2017. Miller, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Research and Technology, and other experts testified before the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, Feb. Miller responded: 'I believe we're very close.' 25, 2016) - Responding to lawmakers' questions about how close the Army is to developing offensive and defensive directed-energy weapons, Mary J.

Long war 2 laser weapons