The U.S. Air Force envisions placing laser weapon systems on fighter jets by the mid-2020s. The service is banking on a defense contractor’s SHiELD laser system, a pod-mounted laser that will protect fighters from incoming missiles.
The system will likely be used—at first, anyway—to protect older fighters that can’t take advantage of stealth to hide from the enemy.
The system is called SHiELD, or Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator. National Defense reports SHiELD is a pod-mounted laser developed by Lockheed Martin on behalf of the Air Force Research Laboratory. Mounted on the fuselage or wing of a fighter jet, SHiELD could shoot down incoming air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles.
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Today’s fighter jets are largely limited to passive defenses against incoming missiles. Pilots can take evasive action to try and fly outside an incoming missile’s sensor arc, launch flares to distract an infrared missile seeker, or spread strips of aluminum foil, known as “chaff,” to confuse a missile guided by radar. A laser would be the first real “active” anti-missile defense in the world of air combat, actively trying to shoot a missile down.
Read more: Popular Mechanics
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