The US Army, according to Defense Post, has collected opinions from military personnel regarding placing a 50-kilowatt combat laser on its Striker wheeled armored personnel carrier.
It seems that the soldiers' opinions were not positive.
Doug Bush, head of the US Army Procurement Department, said that the army that tested the Directed Energy Short-Range Air Defense System (DE M-SHORAD) faced problems operating at different power levels.
Bush said: “This power level (50 kilowatts) is difficult to apply to a vehicle that needs to be constantly moving due to heat dissipation, the large number of electronics, and the increased range of the vehicle’s consumption in a tactical environment.
In addition, the official noted that the positive results obtained during laboratory tests and live fire tests of the system differ significantly from those recorded in real tactical conditions.
According to the Defense Post website, the US Army decided to experiment with installing a high-energy RTX laser weapon on a General Dynamics Stryker wheeled combat vehicle, in search of a mobile and effective means of combating drones.
The Army has instructed Kord Technologies to take the lead in this area, explaining that the laser system should be able to neutralize small, medium and large-sized drones, in addition to missiles, artillery shells and mortar shells.
The first live-fire tests of the DE M-SHORAD laser system were conducted at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in August 2021. Another live-fire test was conducted in May 2022, in which the system detected and tracked several mortar mines at the White Sands Missile Test Range in New Mexico. And destroy it.
The US Army announced earlier this year the deployment of laser combat systems on the chassis of the Striker armored personnel carrier in the Middle East region amid increasing attacks from the Houthis in Yemen. However, according to General James Mingus, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Ground Forces, the DE M-SHORAD system has not yet been used to intercept enemy drones, since all efforts are now focused on operating in sandy and dusty desert conditions.
It seems that the Americans have completely lost confidence in their new innovative weapons and now want to see how their combat laser will behave in sand storms, knowing that lasers and flying sand are not compatible at all.
It is raising concerns about its practical effectiveness.
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