{"id":64952,"date":"2023-08-11T19:03:17","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T19:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2023\/08\/11\/us-army-working-through-challenges-with-laser-weapons\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:56:11","slug":"us-army-working-through-challenges-with-laser-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2023\/08\/11\/us-army-working-through-challenges-with-laser-weapons\/","title":{"rendered":"US Army working through challenges with laser weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. \u2014 The U.S. Army is working through a variety of challenges with directed-energy weapons<\/a> for air defense, including how to affordably manufacture the high-tech capability and sustain it on the battlefield, according to service officials with knowledge of the effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But more importantly, according to the Army\u2019s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office director, the service must figure out how it will fight with the systems<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With other efforts in his portfolio like hypersonic weapons and midrange missiles that are rapidly transferring to programs of record and already being fielded to units, \u201cwe knew what those capabilities were and trained the soldiers how to use it. We had a plan doctrinally,\u201d Lt. Gen. Rob Rasch told Defense News in an Aug. 10 interview at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDirected energy is an area that we didn\u2019t know as much, not just from how to make them but how we\u2019re going to employ them<\/a>,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Rasch took over the Army office a year ago, he determined he needed to keep a prototyping effort to build a directed-energy weapon on a Stryker combat vehicle for short-range air defense in his portfolio longer than planned<\/a>. It was expected to head to the service\u2019s Program Executive Office Missiles and Space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rasch\u2019s organization is waiting to receive the last of four prototypes it is required to deliver as a first platoon set. Two of the prototypes successfully underwent testing with soldiers at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we don\u2019t yet know from directed-energy systems, necessarily, is how to fight [with] them, how to fight [with] lasers on the battlefield, how to integrate kinetic and non-kinetic effectively, like directed energy and other traditional air defense missiles, into the battlespace,\u201d Rasch told an audience at the SMD Symposium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first platoon will begin developing tactics, techniques and procedures as well as training guidance, then conduct an operational assessment before Rasch turns the effort over to the program office in fiscal 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The effort to put a laser on a Stryker vehicle equipped with a Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense system began in mid-2019, when the Army awarded KBR subsidiary Kord Technologies a contract <\/a>to integrate a laser system onto the vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
U.S. soldiers sit in an M-SHORAD Stryker vehicle on March 1, 2022, in Kazlu Ruda, Lithuania. (Paulius Peleckis\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As the program\u2019s prime contractor, Kord subsequently awarded subcontracts to Northrop Grumman and RTX<\/a> teams to develop the laser module.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The competition between Northrop and RTX to produce the laser module was intended to culminate in a shoot-off between the two teams. But Northrop took itself out of the running <\/a>ahead of the event in early 2021 after problems with the power and thermal management system resulted in a fire and smoke damage to the laser system and other components.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RTX completed the shoot-off and was awarded a $123 million contract to supply the laser weapon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building a base<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Army is now grappling with how to ensure directed-energy systems can be manufactured affordably. Rasch is now trying to drive competition into various components.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, Rasch wondered, \u201cgiven the thermal aspects of the directed energy, the heat that it puts off, how do we ensure that we get systems that are reliable?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rasch has launched a new round of prototyping that is taking another look at what industry could offer, such as laser modules and beam directors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be bringing in some different component vendors primarily to ensure that we have competition when we pass it over to PEO Missiles and Space,\u201d Rasch said. \u201cWe want to make sure that we\u2019re not giving them a vendor-locked solution. The competition helps drive affordability<\/a>. \u2026 We\u2019re trying to grow the industrial base across the board \u2026 so that competition just isn\u2019t at the top, it\u2019s at multiple levels within that supply chain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reliability in the field<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

As the Army prepares to field laser weapons after decades of development, Maj. Gen. Sean Gainey, who leads the Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office, said the biggest challenge in his view is ensuring sustainability in the field. He noted it\u2019s been difficult to keep a few laser weapon systems up and running in U.S. Africa Command\u2019s area of operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have to do better if we want to scale this across the force,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLasers are complicated,\u201d Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler, the head of Space and Missile Defense Command, said at the symposium. \u201cWhen you look at what you have to do to build a laser, and many of the main components … you\u2019re not going to have a supply room or maintenance office full of repair parts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office is working on how to design systems that can easily receive maintenance using \u201cline-replaceable units\u201d that can be quickly swapped in and out in the field, rather than needing a \u201cclean room with scientists with gloves to do all that work,\u201d Rasch said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the service ultimately fields its directed-energy M-SHORAD system is a \u201cbigger Army decision,\u201d Rasch added, \u201cbut working very closely with PEO Missiles and Space on that path, we\u2019ve got it aligned there that allows us to do enough learning on the overall capability of that particular system, both from an operational perspective and a materiel developer perspective to help inform that decision collectively.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Army is grappling with how to fight with laser weapons, as well as how to easily repair them in the field and affordably make the 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