US Army to develop 300-kW Laser-Based Air Defense System

The US Army has contracted a General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS)-Boeing team to develop a 300-kilowatt laser-based air defense system prototype.

The solid-state Distributed Gain High Energy Laser Weapon System will include GA-EMS’ scalable High Energy Laser (HEL) weapon system and Boeing’s beam director to defeat a range of “emerging threats.”