Mark Lewis, formerly the Pentagon's senior scientist now CEO of the Purdue Applied Research Institute (PARI), gave MDA a thumbs up for taking a new look at the concept, noting that the technology has come a long way since 2014.
Flight demos will take place in summer or fall 2023, but it remains unclear whether development will turn into a bonafide program of record.
Modeling and simulation get an AI upgrade for more realistic training and improved autonomous platforms.
"The ability to intercept and destroy airborne threats in the air is groundbreaking and offers a strategic change in the air defense capabilities of the State of Israel." the head of research and development in the Israeli Defense Ministry, Brig. Gen. Yaniv Rotem, told BD.
CSIS's Todd Harrison said he believes that the "many challenges" to the SHiELD concept can be overcome "with time and money" -- and could well be worth expending because of the potential benefits.
“I think it can be done as an experiment, but as a weapon system to equip an airplane with the kinds of lasers we think necessary...that combination of things doesn't go on one platform," Mike Griffin, head of Pentagon research. "So, I'm just extremely skeptical of that.”
WASHINGTON: Two days after North Korea’s latest missile launch, the US conducted a successful test of its homeland missile defense system for the first time in almost three years. Codenamed FTG-15, today’s event was also the system’s first test ever against an “ICBM-class” target, as opposed to lesser surrogates, the Missile Defense Agency announced. The painful […]
CDAO’s Advana data analytics platform is ingesting data from about 500 DoD business systems.
HUNTSVILLE, ALA.: Three years after the Missile Defense Agency mothballed its massive Airborne Laser, MDA is planning to reboot the concept for a new era. The old ABL was Boeing 747 with a human crew and tanks of toxic chemicals to generate power. The new idea a high-altitude, long-endurance drone armed with a more compact […]
TYSON’S CORNER: New laser technology looks promising as a way to shoot down Chinese-style massed missiles. But laser projects have overpromised and underdelivered for decades, from Reagan’s Star Wars in the eighties to the Airborne Laser, canceled in 2011. Now proponents must convince the skeptics — particularly in Congress — that this time is different. “Right […]
WASHINGTON: Lasers are déclassé even in science-fiction nowadays – the guys in Avatar and Mass Effect shoot bullets – and the big Air Force and Army laser programs of the last decade were ignominiously cancelled. So I was surprised at last week’s Navy League Sea-Air-Space conference to hear “directed energy” technology mentioned by no less […]