The U.S. Army is "making up for" field air defense and developing laser air defense weapons, perhaps because air superiority has been lost

The U.S. Army is getting closer to fielding its Directed Energy-Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense system, which will be mounted on a Stryker infantry carrier, according to U.S. officials.

Laser Stryker prototype vehicle, currently equipped with a 50-kilowatt laser, is mainly used to deal with small drones. In the future, the U.S. Army hopes to increase the power to 250-300 kilowatts, which can be used to deal with precision-guided weapons such as cruise missiles.

“Our DE-M SHORAD rapid prototyping effort is underway to deliver the Army’s first operationally-ready directed energy system — a 50-kilowatt-class laser — to protect troops within a brigade combat team from unmanned aerial systems, helicopter and fixed-wing threats, as well as rockets and mortars,” said Marcia Holmes, deputy director for Hypersonics, Directed Energy, Space and Rapid Acquisition in the U.S. Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office.

Application scenario concept map

The program plans to provide a platoon with four Stryker prototypes with integrated laser weapon systems, for delivery in fiscal 2022, Holmes told reporters in an Aug. 18, 2021, call.

The timetable has not changed, that is, four vehicles per platoon in fiscal year 2022, but the specific vehicle configuration is different

Including the top picture, there are three configuration concepts, but the vehicle body is the Stryker armored vehicle.

This summer, the Army's Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, in partnership with Army Futures Command's Air and Missile Defense Cross-Functional Team, the Fires Center of Excellence and Army Test and Evaluation Command, brought a Stryker armored vehicle equipped with a laser launcher to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for a "fire-off."

During the event, crews faced realistic scenarios designed to flesh out desired design features for the system, said Col. Scott McLeod, program manager.

"The firing experiment was a huge success. During the ongoing test activities... Soldiers were trained to operate the system safely and to handle various situations using a crawl, walk, run training method (which can be understood as a step-by-step approach)," he told reporters by phone. "As part of this approach, Soldiers used cutting-edge, state-of-the-art immersive training techniques to quickly familiarize themselves with the weapon system of the Directed Energy Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense (DE-M SHORAD) system. Within a few days, Soldiers were operating the system, demonstrating their high level of proficiency."

He noted that during the launch, the team collected data that will help further refine the equipment's capabilities. Holmes added that the Army is working to maintain its accelerated project timeline through the rapid prototyping program, understanding that the first iteration may not be the "absolutely perfect solution."

"We adjust our approach to acquisition and acceptance of risk accordingly to meet these accelerated timelines," she said. "Our goal is really to deliver prototypes that Soldiers can use when the mission requires them, that are safe, and that the Army can use as a foundation for a program of record."

It is not difficult to see from the name that the Interim Mobile Short-range Air Defense (IM-SHORAD) system of conventional missiles + machine guns in the picture is a transitional product. The main air defense weapon of the US Army in the future will be laser.

According to reports, the Pentagon had envisioned deploying "Stryker" laser combat vehicles in Iraq and Syria to combat "flying improvised explosive devices" and suicide drones of extremist armed groups. However, after the Crimea incident in 2014, the U.S. Army in Europe found that it had shortcomings in short-range air defense capabilities, so the application of this weapon in the European theater became the main focus of U.S. military planners. In the past few years, soldiers of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment of the U.S. Army have installed and used 5-kilowatt laser systems on "Stryker" armored vehicles deployed in Europe. Later tests of 50-kilowatt laser systems showed that compared with previous systems, there were significant improvements in power and lethality, and they were eventually proven to be able to effectively intercept incoming drones and artillery shells.

"The laser weapon system is lethal against drones, rockets, artillery shells and mortars and can be used to improve the U.S. Army's defensive capabilities while reducing logistical requirements and operating costs," the Army said in a statement.

The report also stated that the "Directed Energy-Mobile Short-Range Air Defense" system (DE-M SHORAD) is not the only laser weapon system currently under development by the US Army. The force will also deploy a 300-kilowatt "Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High Energy Laser" (IFPC-HEL) vehicle-mounted laser weapon by 2024. The 50-kilowatt "Stryker" laser vehicle is mainly used to deal with drones and airborne ammunition, but the 300-kilowatt IFPC-HEL system may be able to be used against incoming cruise missiles.

Two concept vehicles for the Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL) vehicle-mounted laser weapon, which requires a dedicated chassis because of its high power.

The LW-30 laser combat vehicle exhibited at the Zhuhai Air Show in 2018. Based on a vehicle-mounted platform, it uses directional emission of high-energy lasers to quickly intercept typical targets such as optoelectronic guidance equipment, drones, model aircraft, guided bombs, mortars, etc. It has the characteristics of modularization, easy maintenance, sustainable combat, high-energy focused emission, efficient thermal management, and long-distance detection and imaging capabilities.