Second test of Air Force’s drone-killing laser may start later this year

February 22, 2021

UPI.com:

 

Further experiments in directed energy weapons — which use of lasers and microwaves to intercept hostile airborne objects — are expected in 2021, the U.S. Air Force said on Wednesday.

A one-year assessment of the High Energy Laser Weapon System 2, or HELWS2, made by Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, began in spring 2020, with a second test expected 6 to 12 months after it is completed, the Air Force said in a statement.

The system uses commercial, off-the-shelf equipment to “identify and neutralize hostile or unauthorized UAS [unmanned aerial systems] in seconds and, when connected to a generator, to provide ‘a nearly infinite number of shots,'” a Congressional Research Service report said in January.

They follow tests of an earlier version, known as H1, which concentrated on weapons designed to prevent observation and assault by drones…

 

Click here to read the full article.