In a first for offensive directed-energy weapons, a laser-equipped AH-64 Apache attack helicopter successfully zapped and destroyed several targets during recent flight tests at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
The demonstration was the first time a laser was fully integrated on a rotorcraft and successfully engaged targets from a variety of flight maneuvers, speeds, altitudes, according to the Army’s Apache program office and U.S. Special Operations Command, which jointly hosted the demonstration.
An Apache was outfitted with a variant of the Raytheon [RTN] multi-spectral targeting system (MTS), an advanced electro-optical infrared sensor coupled with a laser mounted beneath its stubs wings. The MTS provided targeting information, situational awareness and beam control.
Art Morrish, vice president of Advanced Concept and Technologies for Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, said the company is working to move up the fieldable date for advanced technologies like lasers.
“This data collection shows we’re on the right track,” he said in a prepared statement. “By combining combat proven sensors, like the MTS, with multiple laser technologies, we can bring this capability to the battlefield sooner rather than later.”
The test provided experimental evidence for the feasibility of combining high resolution, multi-band targeting sensor performance and beam propagation as a means of outfitting attack helicopters with high-energy lasers.
The system was able to track a number of targets and direct sufficient energy onto them to destroy them. The Army and Raytheon collected data on the effects of vibration, dust and rotor downwash on laser beam control and aiming.
Air Force Special Operations Command has plans to conduct demonstrations of a laser mounted on an AC-130 fixed-wing gunship in 2020. The Navy already has fielded high-energy lasers on ships to shoot down small unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and disable small surface craft.
The Army so far has tested high-energy lasers for the counter-UAS mission on ground vehicles and plans to send a version of its mobile high-energy laser (MHEL) to Europe for test aboard a Stryker in 2018.