The U.S. Army has concluded a live-fire test of the 50-kilowatt laser weapon variant of the service branch’s Stryker-based Short-Range Air Defense system at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, DefenseNews reported Thursday.
Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch, head of the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, said the Directed Energy Maneuver-SHORAD prototypes demonstrated their ability to target unmanned aerial systems in the Group 1, 2 and 3 categories during the test.
The first two DE M-SHORAD prototypes were delivered to the Army in 2022 for training with soldiers, while the third prototype is scheduled to undergo acceptance testing. The final unit in the platoon set is expected to be delivered within the next couple of months.
In August 2019, the Army awarded a $203 million other transaction authority agreement with Kord Technologies, a subsidiary of KBR, to integrate a laser system onto the SHORAD systems developed by General Dynamics’ land systems division under a $1.219 billion contract.
Kord subsequently teamed up with subcontractors Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Technologies to develop competing prototypes of the laser system. Raytheon’s offering was selected for the DE M-SHORAD program.
