"Finally real progress": The army has declared success in laser weapons development

According to a high -ranking official, the US Army pays "increased attention" for the development of weapons of directional energy to destroy the enemy missiles in connection with the completion of new research in the field of energy directed. "I think the necessary technologies should still" mature. " The Ministry of Defense has actively developed lasers and powerful microwaves for the missile defense from the very beginning of Ronald Reagan's defensive initiative 40 years ago.

In recent years, there has been a surge of interest, which later faded through the imperfection of technologies, but now technologies are being improved and "it gives stunning results," the official says. "We have constantly conducted research, studied combat effects and conducted experiments. But we think that we are finally starting to see some real progress," says Desimun.

The Ministry of Defense has already allocated more than $ 2 million Lockheed Martin to study how a weapon of directional energy can be integrated with current agency systems that rely on kinetic interception of ballistic and in the future hypersonic missiles. The study should be completed next month. At this time, the Defense Ministry would like to get compact, reliable and effective lasers for air defense systems.

Of particular interest are fibers, solid, gas and liquid -phase lasers with diode pumping (continuous or pulsed). "The directional energy opens great opportunities for the future. The presence of a potential system of lesions is so many advantages - it gives the fighter additional possibilities for combat, saves cross -cards and reduces the costs of combat," Desimun emphasizes.