welcome back lockheed could succeed in  shrinking down its helios laser in order  

to fit a future fighter plane before  any new plane is ready to carry it  

alternatively the company could offer the  laser as an upgrade for existing fighters but  

directed energy weapons require more electrical  power than today's fighters easily can generate  

us arms maker lockheed martin is developing a  laser that could be small enough to arm a future  

sixth generation fighter plane the high  energy laser and integrated optical dazzler  

and surveillance system is at the core of  lockheed martin's electronic warfare work

the company expects to field a ship based helios  system aboard an arleigh burke-class guided  

missile destroyer in 2021 however technological  advances are helping the company shrink the size  

of helios from what is due for installation aboard  a ship to what can possibly fit onto an airframe  

a laser has obvious advantages it could be more  accurate than a gun is a fighter could fire many  

more laser shots than it could carry missiles  potentially boosting the plane's magazine depth  

envisions placing laser weapon systems on fighter  jets by the mid-2020s the service is working on  

its own laser weapon shield a pod mounted laser  that will protect fighters from incoming missiles

the system is called shield or self-protect  high-energy laser demonstrator mounted on  

the fuselage or wing of a fighter jet talls could  shoot down incoming air-to-air and surface-to-air  

missiles lockheed martin is working on a separate  weapon tactical airborne laser weapon system talls  

will use program data from shield today's fighter  jets are largely limited to passive defenses  

against incoming missiles pilots can take evasive  action and try to fly outside an incoming missile  

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 air missile defense in the world of air  combat actively trying to shoot a missile down  

shield and talls will be pod mounted systems  meaning they'll take up a station on a fighter  

jet typically reserved for bombs missiles  or sensor pods that makes them a bad fit  

for stealthy aircraft such as the f-22  raptor or f-35 joint strike fighter as  

the pods will break up the plane's  carefully minimized radar signature  

that said both planes already have a missile  defense system already built in stealth technology

lasers such as shield and talls will likely go  on fighters unable to hide from their adversaries  

such as the air force's f-15e f-15c and new f-15ex  eagle fighters f-16 fighting falcons and perhaps  

even a-10c warthog attack jets trading the ability  to carry one more missile or bomb for a laser  

that could shoot down many incoming missiles  is a no-brainer a laser weapon paired with  

existing chaff and flare defenses could very well  someday be controlled by an r2d2 type artificial  

intelligence tasked with defending their warplanes  from missile attack lasers will be useful airborne  

weapons a laser can be powered by the airplane's  engine removing the need for an onboard gun  

magazine and providing a theoretically unlimited  number of shots laser energy travels at the speed  

of light removing ballistics from the targeting  equation and making it impossible to dodge  

however lasers do have a few downsides atmospheric  effects particularly water moisture and smoke  

particles quickly dilute to laser strength the  farther a laser beam travels the weaker it grows  

furthermore the laser must be focused on the  fast-moving missile long enough to have an effect  

unlike missiles whose high-explosive warheads  deliver a lot of energy in a single devastating  

explosion a laser projects a steady stream of  concentrated light that heats the target until  

something fails or explodes a missile traveling at  ultra fast speeds could prove a difficult target  

upon which to focus a beam a laser defense system  like talls or shield is harder than it looks  

the system must pack the ability to detect track  and shoot down incoming missiles into a single  

pod mounted package the laser must be powerful  enough to fry an incoming missile's electronics  

or cause damage to the skin or control systems  including aerodynamic failure this is just the  

beginning of aircraft lasers eventually laser  weapons will go on almost all warplanes from  

bombers to aerial tankers giving them some  form of active protection as lasers become more  

powerful they will become increasingly capable of  engaging larger more complex targets like enemy  

aircraft lasers will also become useful in  engaging ground targets and some experts  

predict capable of shooting down ballistic  missiles shortly after launch shortly after you