WSJ: Lockheed Martin will set the Pentagon on the F-15 laser weapons
WSJ: Lockheed Martin will set the Pentagon on the F-15 laser weapons
NEW YORK, December 9. /TASS/. The Pentagon has provided the American Corporation Lockheed Martin the contract for installation on the F-15 laser weapons capable of destroying drones and attacking missiles. This was announced on Friday, the Wall Street Journal.
According to her, a contract worth $26 million was signed in November. The Pentagon expects to get laser weapons with a capacity of not less than 50 kilowatts, able to destroy a target from a distance of not less than 1.6 km, the newspaper notes. The defense Ministry expects that in the future the power of weapons will be increased to 100-150 kilowatts. As expected, equipped with lasers of the F-15 will go into service by 2021.
Lockheed Martin in August tested a laser installation for the destruction of unmanned aerial vehicles. They took place at the site of the US army white Sands in new Mexico. They used portable 30-kilowatt laser, ground-based ATHENA. Lockheed Martin released the video of test, which shows how the laser beam strikes tail of aircraft, with the result that they begin to burn, you lose handling and fall to the ground.
Such weapons and develop other companies of the military-industrial complex, including Raytheon, which is in June during the tests was shot down drones with a laser mounted on the Apache helicopter, from a distance of 1.4 km. In July, us forces held in the waters of the Persian Gulf test laser gun on Board the mother ship shooter ship Ponce. Then was also struck a variety of targets, including unmanned aerial vehicles.
