The commercial drones operated by the “Islamic State” complicated the Mosul war. The grenade and small bombs they dropped caused the Iraqi army to escape. In response to the increasing threat from the enemy’s “Eye of the Sky”, the US Army conducted field tests on vehicle-mounted laser weapons that intercepted drones. In a 10-day exercise that ended recently, the “Stryker” armored vehicle equipped with the “mobile high-energy laser pointer” weapon system was conducted at the Army’s mobile firepower comprehensive experiment in Sillburg, Oklahoma, USA. A walkthrough. The 5 kilowatt laser beam it emits can interfere with the UAV’s circuit.
This system includes a radar detection device and a camera, which can intuitively track the drone on the screen so that the operator can use laser to aim it. The US Army said that “hard killing” can cause the drone to malfunction during flight and crash; “soft killing” refers to cutting off the communication link between the drone and the ground control center with a laser. In the U.S. Army’s press release on the exercise, Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Elz of the Fire Operations Laboratory in Sillburg said: We can also fire shells at the enemy’s ground control center.
A total of 50 drones were shot down during the exercise. This laser weapon will not make a sound when shooting, and is the core equipment of the experimental modified “Stryker” armored vehicle used in this exercise. It is installed outside the cockpit on the top of the 16.5-ton “Stryker” armored vehicle. This part was originally installed with a 0.50 inch (about 12.7 mm) caliber machine gun or MK-19 automatic grenade launcher. The US Army’s video demonstration of this revised armored vehicle was replaced by an M240B machine gun.
A soldier in the video said that the task of dealing with the drone was handed over to the reconnaissance force. It is unclear how effective this weapon is against larger and more advanced drones used by regular forces in military operations. The signals of drones used by regular troops will be better protected, and the flying height is much higher than that of commercial drones.
Paul Sharay, the head of the New American Security Center’s “Future Future Plan” who served as an unmanned system policy officer at the Pentagon, said that although lasers can maintain energy intensity over long distances, atmospheric and weather conditions may affect them for greater power and weight Jamming capability of military-grade UAVs. He said that to interfere with the system of such drones, a green laser pointer with a higher power than the beam currently used by “mobile high-energy laser” weapons may be required.
The US Army said in a press release that two revised “Stryker” armored vehicles had been deployed to Europe in March of this year and were tested by combat forces. Shalei said that for decades, various questions and theories have arisen around the question of whether or not directed-energy weapons can be used in combat. The successful test of mobile laser weapons is an important step forward.
Reporters are currently unable to contact US Army officials to explain whether the “mobile high-energy laser” weapon has actual combat use against the Iraqi or US forces that are fighting the “Islamic State.” However, in July last year, defense analyst Peter Singh posted a picture of a “anti-drone rifle” appearing on a US military base in Iraq on Twitter’s website. It is suspected that the coalition forces may have used the drone The jamming technology is invested in the local battlefield.