The Army Has a Plan to Kill Drones: Frickin' Laser Beams

Published on April 5, 2024

de m shorad stryker armed with 50 kilowatt laser at trial in fort sill in 2021

The U.S. Army revealed last month that, back in January, it had deployed laser weapons for the first time to a war zone: a platoon of three Directed Energy or DE-Stryker armored vehicles detached from the 4th Battalion of the 60th Air Defense Artillery Regiment to help defend bases in the Middle East against constant drone, rocket, and mortar attacks from various Iranian-backed militias.

This news dropped at the same time as newly released plans explained that the Army was re-allocating human resources away from its special ops units. The intention is to instead stand up a larger force of short-range air defense with the goal of protecting soldiers from attacking drones, mortar rounds and cruise missiles. The urgency for such defenses was reinforced after an Iranian-designed kamikaze drone killed three U.S. soldiers in Jordan on January 27.

Read Full Article

Other news

Contested Environments: Drone Demands For The Modern Battlefield

April 5, 2024
The recent surge of activity from the Defense Innovation Unit reveals the Pentagon's determination to accelerate the acquisition of drone technology. Today, the focus lies in deploying agile, high-performance drones tailored for contested environments. However, bridging the gap between innovation and battlefield needs remains a persistent challenge.The DoD’s RDR and Replicator initiatives aim to s

The role of Chinese artificial intelligence in the Gaza war

April 6, 2024
Perhaps the irony that struck me most as an expert in Chinese political affairs is that I stopped researching and analyzing the relationship between “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” or the Gaza War on October 7, 2023, and the employment of artificial intelligence technology in China in that war. (Integrating artificial intelligence into Israeli military operations and training) played a role in  The Unit