The Army’s acquisition chief Bruce Jette has confirmed that the U.S. Army has plans to equipped Stryker combat vehicles with a modern laser weapon systems.

Soldiers at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, have already been able to take down small unmanned aerial systems with a laser at the 10-kilowatt level.

Mobile Expeditionary High Energy Laser (MEHEL), a Stryker equipped with a 5-kW laser, has successfully engaged targets, including unmanned aerial systems, during Maneuver Fires Integration Experiments at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and at the Joint Warfighting Assessment in Germany. At both MFIX-18 and JWA 18.1, the MEHEL was operated by Soldiers.

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This is just one system, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s Technical Center is seeing positive results from its four efforts: High Energy Laser Mobile Test Truck, High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstrator, Mobile Experimental High Energy Laser, and Multi-Mission High Energy Laser.

Strykers with 50-kilowatt lasers will take a few more years to develop until they can begin to be fielded in 2024, Lt. Gen. James Pasquarette, the Army’s deputy chief of staff also added.

A 100-kilowatt laser on a larger vehicle, called the High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstrator, will also be tested against a variety of targets in fiscal 2022.

“When you try to shrink all that down and keep a continuous beam, it becomes very difficult,” Bruce Jette said.