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Air Force To Test Directed Energy Weapons Against Small Drones

By Marc Selinger

Wednesday, September 27th, 2017

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Air Force To Test Directed Energy Weapons Against Small Drones

The popular quadcopter UAV developed by China's DJI. These recreation drones can be a nuisance or a threat in some areas. Photo: DJI

The U.S. Air Force plans to conduct an experiment in fiscal year 2018 using directed energy weapons to counter small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).The experiment will seek to determine whether high-energy lasers and high-power microwaves could help in such ways as protecting military bases in combat zones, the Air Force announced late Sept. 26. Directed-energy proponents say such weapons could provide more precision and less collateral damage than traditional weapons.The Air Force Research Laboratory recently released a request for information…

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