Lockheed Martin is raising the bar on its 300-kW laser weapon system, announcing it is scaling it up to 500 kW under a new contract from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering (OUSD (R&E)).

With the ability to intercept targets at the speed of light and an operating cost of a dollar a shot, lasers have been very attractive in military circles for six decades. However, getting practical laser weapons to the battlefield has been a long time coming because of the need to make such systems light enough, compact enough, robust enough, and powerful enough for the job.

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As part of the second phase of the High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI), Lockheed is pushing to increase the output of its solid-state laser weapon to 500 kW, giving it the capacity to take on larger, harder, and more maneuverable threats.

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