A full test of the pod system is expected in 2024.
The U.S. Air Force Research Lab has begun building a pod-mounted laser weapon designed to keep friendly aircraft safe from enemy missiles. The Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) pod is under construction at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. If successful, one of SHiELD’s descendants will protect older Air Force fighters, tankers, and surveillance aircraft from missile attacks. Previously On.
The SHiELD pod, which the Air Force worked on with Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman, will consist of three major subsystems including the pod itself, the laser, and beam control. AFRL received the pod this month, and the two remaining subsystems will arrive later this year.
Source: USAF
Source: US Air Force
Source: Lockheed Martin
“DEUCE exposed our visiting warfighters to airborne laser weapon systems and how they might be used to counter threats to accomplish air base air defense and platform protect missions,” says Teresa LeGalley, the AFRL’s wargaming and simulation lead. “We engaged the warfighters in several battlefield scenarios. They gave us some excellent assessments, identifying where there is potential military utility of directed energy weapons.”
The AFRL’s wargaming experiment comes after Lockheed committed in September 2020 to putting a defensive laser weapon on an aircraft, perhaps the F-16 fighter, within five years. Its Tactical Airborne Laser Weapon System, a podded directed energy system carried underneath an aircraft, is intended for shooting down incoming tactical weapons, for instance air-to-air or surface-to-air missiles.