Lockheed Martin has revealed that it delivered a compact directed energy weapon to the Air
Force Research Lab in February. This is part of an effort to arm
American fighters with laser weapons that can take out incoming anti-aircraft missiles
and this development is being considered a key milestone.
Tyler Griffin, a company executive told reports, “It is the smallest, lightest, high energy laser
of its power class that Lockheed Martin has built to date. It is a critical benchmark
in developing an operational laser weapon system in the airborne domain.”
Griffin stated, "It’s one-sixth the size of what we produced for the Army
going back to just 2017”, referring to the Robust Electric laser Initiative program
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how LANCE could be a game-changer for US Air Force?
Let's get into the details.
Near-peer rivals of the U.S like Russia & China have deployed sophisticated
long-range air defense systems as part of the Anti-Access and Area Denial (A2AD) strategy.
Russia has deployed S-300, and S-400 and is in the process of
operationalizing S-500. China has HQ-9 SAM.
Even second-class powers like Iran
have developed indigenous air defense systems that have decent capabilities.
For reference, Iran has operationalized Khordad 15 claimed to be locally manufactured.
These weapons could inflict a huge amount of damage to the U.S military's aerial assets
like 4th generation fighters such as F-18s, non-stealthy bombers like B-52s,
aerial tankers and Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft.
While traditional measures like Electronic Jamming,
Chaffs and Flares can be used to counter incoming missiles, they are not always effective.
An active defense that can complement these measures
will help a lot when it comes to penetrating highly defended airspace.
The LANCE acronym stands for “Laser Advancements for Next-generation Compact Environments.”
Lockheed got the initial contract to design, develop and produce LANCE in November 2017
as part of the Air Force’s self-protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) program.
That effort has three components: in addition to LANCE, there is a beam control system,
built by Northrop Grumman, which directs the laser on its target, as well as a pod
that is mounted on the aircraft. Boeing is responsible for that pod
subsystem, which the Air Force said it received in February 2021.
Kent Wood, acting director of AFRL’s directed
energy directorate, said in a statement to Breaking Defense
that the subsystems delivered under SHiELD or or Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator
“represent the most compact and capable laser weapon technologies delivered to date.”
He added, “Mission utility
analyses and wargaming studies are ongoing and will help determine how these subsystems
and/or an integrated laser weapon system might potentially be used. Specific targets for future
tests and demonstrations will be determined by the results of these studies as well,”
With the laser delivered to the Air Force, Griffin said the next step will be to start
integrating the weapon itself with the thermal system that manages LANCE’s heating and cooling.
When asked about when the weapon will be fired,
Griffin deferred to the Air Force. Wood, the AFRL official,
told Breaking Defense the service has not made any final decisions for “follow-on activities.”
“A variety of potential applications and platforms are being considered for potential
demonstrations and tests, in partnership with our warfighter stakeholders,” he said.
“At this time, no decision has been made
on a specific application or platform for these follow-on activities,
no flight demonstration is funded and there is no direct transition plan into a program of record.”
Lasers are silent and invisible and the speed of light enables them to hit their targets almost
instantaneously. Laser weapons also don’t need to carry ammunition like traditional systems
and hence they will be able to take out a much larger number of threats
constrained only by the power supply limit of the platform.
The cost is also expected to be much lesser compared to traditional counter- measures.
While laser weapons are not “kinetic" in nature, even a weak laser is capable of disrupting the
optical guidance systems of incoming missiles and drones. Powerful laser weapons can further
destroy a missile’s flight control fins and can also thermally set off their warheads.
The Pentagon has been pushing for directed energy weapons for some time now.
In 2010, the US Air Force mounted and fired off a megawatt-class chemical laser
from a modified Boeing 747. Things have changed since then and instead of unstable
chemical laser used for that experiment, solid-state lasers are now being used.
A test with LaWS was conducted in 2014.
Laser Weapon System or LaWS is a directed-energy weapon developed by the United States Navy.
On April 23, 2019, the U.S Air Force Research Laboratory
SHiELD Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) Program successfully achieved a major goal.
A laser developed as part of the program had shot down several air-launched missiles in flight.
The main value of LANCE is that it is much smaller,
has less weight and power requirements, and hence can be installed in a fighter.
This could go a long way in enabling the US Air force
to conduct aerial operations confidently in even the most challenging territories.