{"id":18434,"date":"2023-10-15T01:52:02","date_gmt":"2023-10-14T22:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/?p=18434"},"modified":"2023-10-15T01:52:06","modified_gmt":"2023-10-14T22:52:06","slug":"us-amy-awards-contract-for-development-of-laser-weapons-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/us-amy-awards-contract-for-development-of-laser-weapons-system\/","title":{"rendered":"US Amy awards contract for development of laser weapons system"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The U.S. Army has awarded a contract to the defense giant, Lockheed Martin, for the development of up to four 300 kW-class laser weapon systems. The contract has been awarded under the U.S. Army\u2019s Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL) prototype program.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Army has increased its focus on developing high-powered directed energy weapons and defense systems to replace the conventional aerial defense systems. The U.S. Army aims to use laser weapons systems to protect people and assets against short-range and long-range aerial threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Vice President of Lockheed Martin Mission Systems & Weapons, \u201cWinning the IFPC-HEL prototype contract is the result of several years of complex program evolution, strategic investments, and partnership with the Army on this program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur mature directed energy technology enables Lockheed Martin to provide speed, agility, and 21st Century Security solutions to the Army,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


US Army IFPC-HEL Program<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lockheed Martin has been the primary contractor for most of the IFPC-HEL-related projects. Originally laid in 2019, the IFPC-HEL system would complement other layered defense components to protect soldiers from stressing threats, unmanned aerial systems, rockets, artillery, and mortars, along with rotary and fixed-wing aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"U.S.<\/a>
U.S. Army\u2019s Indirect Fires Protection Capability-High Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL) Demonstrator laser weapon system. (Image Credit: Lockheed Martin)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The first prototype developed by the company featured a 100 kW-class science and technology program, the High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstrator (HEL-TVD), which provided the foundation for the 300 kW-class IFPC-HEL demonstrator. In 2020, Lockheed Martin was awarded a contract to develop compact, ruggedized 300 kW-class lasers for the Department of Defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August of 2022, Lockheed Martin delivered the High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI) laser for use in the IFPC-HEL demonstrator, which was the most powerful solid-state-directed energy technology delivered at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Directed energy and laser weapons<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The directed energy weapons and defense systems provide a safe and simple solution to address incoming aerial threats in volumes while operating at a lower cost compared to conventional aerial defense systems. Such aerial defense systems can provide a single solution to short-range as well as long-range aerial threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
A rendering of Lockheed Martin\u2019s 60-kilowatt laser mounted to a U.S. Army truck. The laser beam would not be visible in real life. (Image Credit: Lockheed Martin)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Currently, the U.S. Army uses separate systems for short-range air defense like SHORAD systems, and a totally different air defense system for long-range threats such as the Patriot Air and Missile Defense system, and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense or THAAD system. Through projects like IFPC-HEL, the U.S. Army plans to address the gap between the short-range and long-range missile defense systems into one setup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, in the development phase, directed energy weapons are being developed and tested by several militaries around the world including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Army has awarded a contract to the defense giant, Lockheed Martin, for the development of up to four 300 kW-class laser weapon systems. The contract has been awarded under the U.S. Army\u2019s Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL) prototype program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,125],"tags":[583,336,394,324,5,235,305,7,471,63],"class_list":["post-18434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-united-states","tag-dew","tag-laser","tag-laser-weapon","tag-lockheed-martin","tag-military","tag-technology","tag-thaad","tag-u-s","tag-u-s-army","tag-weapons"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Indirect-Fire-Protection-Capability-High-Energy-Laser.jpg?fit=690%2C370&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-4Nk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18436,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18434\/revisions\/18436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}