The Navy has a seaborne deathlaser on patrol in the Gulf Coast, futuristic railguns in testing, and wants better versions of both in the next five years. Meanwhile, the Air Force isn't slacking; it's projecting flying jet-mounted lasers by 2020.

"I believe we'll have a directed energy pod we can put on a fighter plane very soon," Air Force General Hawk Carlisle said at this week's Air Force Association Air & Space conference, as reported by Ars Technica. Those pods? They're part of a project being worked on by DARPA and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., the High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System or HELLADS.

The HELLADS project is aiming for 150 kW lasers that weigh less than five kilos per kilowatt and less than three cubic meters in total size. A size that's roughly 10 times lighter and smaller than current lasers of that power according to DARPA. For context, the drone-busting laser that the Navy has out in service, LaWS, is just a 30 kW system, though the improved models the Navy wants to have in the next five years would be more in the 100-150 kW range.

This isn't the first time the Air Force has proclaimed their enthusiasm for flying lasers. Earlier this year officials made similar predictions that lasers could be in the air by 2022. All seems to be going well because that window is getting smaller. Tests of the third generation of HELLADS tech has gone so well that there are preliminary plans to attach it to a Predator drone as early as 2018, and if that goes well it's easy to see how jets wouldn't be far behind. From there, it's just a question of how long it will be before Air Force jets can lock S foils in attack position.

Source: Ars Technica via Engadget

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