Lockheed Martin ground-based laser successfully demonstrated
Lockheed Martin has successfully demonstrated its portable, ground-based Area Defense Anti-Munitions (ADAM) military laser system in a series of tests against representative airborne targets. The system uses directed energy to provide a defence against short-range threats, such as rockets and unmanned aerial systems (UAS).
This demonstration is the latest in a series of tests conducted since August, which has seen the ADAM system has successfully engage a UAS target in flight at a range of approximately 1.5 km (0.9 miles) and has destroyed four small-calibre rocket targets in simulated flight at a range of approximately 2 km (1.2 miles).
ADAM is designed for the short-range defence of high-value areas including forward operating bases. The system uses a 10-kilowatt fibre laser to destroy targets up to 2 km (1.2 miles) away, and can precisely track targets in cluttered optical environments with a tracking range of more than 5 km (3.1 miles). The system has been designed to be flexible enough to operate against rockets as a standalone system and to UAS with an external radar cue. Its modular architecture combines commercial hardware components with the company’s proprietary software in an integrated and user friendly system.
Paul Shattuck, Lockheed Martin’s director of directed energy systems for Strategic and Missile Defense Systems, said: ‘Lockheed Martin has applied its expertise as a laser weapon system integrator to provide a practical and affordable defence against serious threats to military forces and installations. In developing the ADAM system, we combined our proven laser beam control architecture with commercial hardware to create a capable, integrated laser weapon system’.
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