The British Secretary of Defense Fallon announced that a laser directed energy weapon demonstration project in the UK has entered the final approval stage. The project mainly verifies the feasibility of new laser pointer weapons in order to develop laser weapons with actual combat capabilities in the future.
According to the British Ministry of Defense, the contract value of this test project called “Laser Directed Energy Weapon Performance Demonstration Equipment” amounts to 30 million pounds (about 260 million yuan), and will be implemented by the British branch of the European Missile Group. It is expected that the prototype equipment will be Delivered before 2019 and used to carry out relevant tests. The British branch of the European Missile Group will use this equipment to evaluate the ability of laser directed energy weapons to acquire and track targets at different distances, terrain, and weather conditions, as well as the possible impact of different conditions on aiming accuracy and control safety.
Laser weapons refer to weapons that use high-energy lasers to accurately shoot long-distance targets or to defend against missile attacks. At present, laser weapons are not suitable for all-weather operations. Weather conditions such as heavy fog, heavy snow, and heavy rain will have a greater impact on their performance. The atmosphere itself will also interfere with laser emission, including the atmosphere will absorb laser energy, and atmospheric disturbance will cause energy attenuation.
Major military powers in the world are developing laser weapons, but most of them are still in the concept demonstration stage. The green laser pointer weapon demonstration project carried out in the UK this time is one of a number of frontier defense technology development projects announced by the UK recently. The funding mainly comes from the new innovation fund established by the British Ministry of Defense.
There is a huge demand for new production tools. It is foreseeable that laser will continue to replace traditional processing methods, such as wire cutting, water cutting, flame cutting and so on. Under the wave of “Industry 4.0”, laser applications will be combined with the Internet and robots to gradually develop from flat to three-dimensional, and from manual operation to intelligent production. With the proposed strategy, laser cutting, welding, cladding, and 3D printing technologies will develop rapidly, providing new driving forces for the industry. In the next 10 years, the laser industry is expected to maintain or even faster than the current development speed, and benefit the laser-related industries. As a leader in the application of laser technology, laser will strive to seize this rare opportunity and continue to work hard to become the benchmark of the entire industry.