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The US Air Force is receiving one of the three main components of a laser weapon system demonstrator this month which is being developed to counter surface-to-air and air-to-air missile attacks on fighter aircraft, the service revealed.
The Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) project, in development by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), is a system consisting of a pod containing a laser weapon and a beam controller fitted on a military jet.
Full System Test in 2024
The pod will be delivered this month, while the other two subsystems are scheduled to arrive in July this year, allowing developers to commence integration work, with a full system test expected in 2024.
By
Theresa Hitchens on February 25, 2021 at 11:42 AM
Lockheed Martin SHiELD concept.
WASHINGTON: The Air Force Research Laboratory’s experimental high-powered laser for aircraft self-defense will be revolutionary if it can be made to work, experts say.
The first full-up flight test of the Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) is now slated for 2024, Jeff Heggemeier, AFRL program manager, told Breaking D yesterday in an email. Some ground testing will be undertaken between now and then to “ensure system performance.” AFRL originally planned a flight test in 2021, last summer they pushed the date out to 2023.
“I would not oversell the capability. It is not going to work against every threat. There are many technological hurdles that need to be overcome, and there are countermeasures adversaries can employ to make a high-energy laser less effective,” summed up Todd Harrison, head of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and Int
The US Air Force Research Laboratory is anticipating delivery later this month of the first major assembly of its Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator weapon.