Laser

Lockheed Martin Wants Futuristic Laser Weapons on Battlefields This Year

A military soldier is clearing a set of buildings when he hears the whir of a cheap consumer drone. He spots it above, and before the UAV is capable of dropping a weapon or relaying his location, a laser attached to a ground vehicle shoots it out of the sky.

That’s the future Lockheed Martin envisions as it refocuses its resources onweaponized laser systems to better combat drones, trucks, and small boats more efficiently than conventional weapons.

“There’s dramatically increased pull from the Department of Defense,” Iain McKinnie, Lockheed Martin’s business development lead for lasers and sensor systems, tells Inverse. “A series of threats are hard to address with traditional kinetic weapons so there’s a real need for laser weapons that can address a swarm of inexpensive threats.”

He says there are a number of advantages to laser weapons, most of which were highlighted in this new hype video showing off the potential for the technology. The company showed drones being shot out of the air, ballistic missiles exploding mid-flight, and a navy ship defending attackers from air and sea at the same time.