US Missile Defense Agency Wants Megawatt Class Laser by 2025/2026

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is looking for information on a 1,000 kW-class electrically-pumped laser for defending the United States, its deployed forces, allies, and friends against all ranges of enemy ballistic missiles in all phases of flight.

The post on the federal business opportunities website is asking industry for information on a capability to demonstrate a 1,000 kW-class electrically-pumped laser in the 2025-26 timeframe.

Missile Defense Agency does not provide a specific platform or strategic mission at this time. The proposed ground demonstrator laser system would be designed to have technology maturation and lightweight engineering paths to potential future platforms.

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US Missile Defense Agency is Requesting Money to Place a Particle Beam Weapon in Orbit

he Missile Defense Agency has offered new details about plans to develop a science fiction-sounding space-based neutral particle beam weapon to disable or destroy incoming ballistic missiles. The goal is to have a prototype system ready for a test in orbit by 2023, an ambitious schedule to demonstrate that the technology has progressed to a more useful state from when the U.S. military last explored and then abandoned the concept nearly three decades ago.

The U.S. military’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2020 asks for $34 million in funding for the neutral particle beam program, or NPB, according to documents released on Mar. 18, 2019. The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) wants a total of $380 million through 2023 fiscal cycle for development of the directed energy weapon. Defense One, citing unnamed U.S. officials, had been first to report the existence of the plan on Mar. 14, 2019. It’s also worth noting that Congress set out a goal of testing of at least one space-based missile defense system prototype by 2022 and the deployment of “an operational capability at the earliest practicable date” in the annual defense policy bill for the 2018 Fiscal Year.

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Stealth Saga #40

Saeqeh UCAV:

Iran claims it used its drone reverse engineered from the captured RQ-170 to strike targets in Syria.

6th Generation Fighters:

Britain's Tempest fighter plan gets examined.

Russia claims to be testing High Power Microwave weapons for use on its 6th gen fighters.

F-3:

Japan has decided all the systems offered by foreign companies as fighters will be too expensive and not provide the capabilities wanted at the prices offered.  As a result, the Japanese are back to working on their own 5th/6th gen fighter.

J-31/FC-31:

Has the J-31/FC-31 prototype been spotted on a truck?

The J-31 gets compared to the F-35.

Su-57:

The SU-57 is supposed to be getting an upgraded version of the R-37M missile.

The Russians may be signaling another delay for the Su-57.  They are stating the deliveries will continue on schedule through 2027.  What that schedule is, who knows.  The only solid date is 2027.

H-20:

The Chinese are saying there's significant progress being made on the H-20 bomber.  This is tickling the rumors there will be a first flight soon.

The Chinese have also confirmed the H-20 designation.

KC-Z:

Lockheed talks about its stealthy KC-Z tanker concepts.

B-21:

SecAF Heather Wilson proposed more squadrons for the USAF to fight a major war.  Of the proposed 74 squadrons 5 are supposed to be for new bombers.  Does that mean the USAF will get 75 more B-21 bombers?

B-2:

B-2s conducted hot pit refueling on Wake Island.

The B-2s defensive modernization management system modernization effort might be delayed 21 months.

B-2s trained with F-22s in Hawaii.

YF-23:

The Blackwidow gets a profiling again for its unique weapons bay layout.

F-22:

Tyndall AFB took it in the shorts from Hurricane Michael.  It's probable some of the F-22s left behind are destroyed.

Homer-Hickam is getting an F-22 facility.

F-22 went down during an emergency landing in Alaska and is now on its side.

An F-22 performed at NAS Oceana's airshow.

F-22s are participating at RAF Lakenheath's dissimilar aircraft training exercises.

F-35:

Pentagon is delaying IOT&E for the F-35 software.

The Pentagon signed the contract with Lockheed for LRIP 11.  102 F-35As at $89.2M each, 25 F-35B at $115.5M each and 14 F-35C at $107.7M.

New incentives for the F-35 contract are in place to increase efficiency.

F-35 stress testing suggests a longer than expected service life.

F-35 operational test and eval plans have been approved.

F-35 flight costs have dropped.

Some F-35 critics might be coming around to the F-35 not being that bad.

F-35s did a shoot with F-16s over Arizona.  You can see the size difference between the planes.

More F-35As may be headed to Eglin AFB.

The joint Valiant Shield exercise included F-35Bs.

The F-35Bs currently deployed near the Horn of Africa have been carrying their external gun pods.

The same F-35Bs were flying recon over Somalia.

The F-35Bs on the USS Essex are supposedly going into combat in Afghanistan.  Actually, they did.  F-35Bs struck Taliban targets in Afghanistan. It won't stop the debate over the F-35.

The USS Essex has entered the Persian Gulf with its F-35Bs.

An F-35B crashed in South Carolina and the pilot seems to have ejected safely.  It seems there is a flaw in the fuel line for the F135 engine and almost all aircraft are grounded.  The Brits will continue flying their F-35Bs for the Queen Elizabeth trials and the Israelis are examining their aircraft.

A USMC F-35B connected to a HIMARS rocket system on the ground to help provide data for a shot.

The USMC is touting the F-35B's readiness despite the global stand down.

An F-35C made a precautionary landing in Fresno.

The first operational F-35C squadron for the Navy has received its first aircraft.

Preliminary feedback on the F-35C in the operational testing is positive.

The Australians have received their first F-35A for a combat squadron.

Two RAAF F-35s will arrive at Williamtown on December 10.

The delivery of F-35s to the Australians is unaffected by the crash.

The Brits are preparing for the carrier trials for the F-35B.  They have launched and now landed F-35Bs on the HMS Queen Elizabeth.  One journalist shares his comments and observations.  Some pictures of the quals.  The Brits started night quals on the Tin Lizzie for the F-35B.

The Brits were observed working their F-35B at RAF Marham.

The Dutch are open to buying more F-35s.

The Israelis are saying the F-35I is more than a match for the S-300 missiles Russia is deploying in Syria.

One of the obstacles for Turkey getting its F-35s has been removed.

Harris will be providing a replacement chip for the F-35 as part of the TR3.

Rathyeon is pitching an autolanding capability for the F-35A.

META:

Chinese researchers have come up with a 3d printable material capable of absorbing across a wideband.

US stealth aircraft are practicing operations from austere forward bases.

Lockheed to Deliver 60 kw Laser Weapon to US Navy by 2020

Lockheed Martin Aculight is being awarded a $150,022,901 contract for Surface Navy Laser Weapon System Increment 1, High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler with surveillance system.

Under this contract Lockheed Martin Aculight will develop, manufacture, and deliver two test units in fiscal 2020, one unit for US Navy destoryer DDG 51 FLT IIA, and one for land-based testing, a US DoD announcement said Friday.

This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $942,818,114.

A request for proposal for the High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) system had been released by the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) on 18 June 2017.

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British High Energy Laser Weapon Demo Program Held up by Contract Protest

Announcement of a contract award to MBDA to build a laser-directed energy weapon demonstrator for the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been held up by a protest filed by one of the losing bidders.

Thales UK filed the protest after missile-maker MBDA was selected in mid-July for the sought-after contract put up for competition by the MoD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), according to a source familiar with the program.

The grounds for the protest are unknown at this stage.

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American Directed Energy Weapons not Getting Enough Funding

On Capitol Hill and in the Pentagon’s courtyard earlier this month, the focus was on developing new air and ground-based weapons that would direct high-energy beams against a range of threats — from frying enemy roadside bombs to zapping ballistic missiles in the boost phase.

Despite the promise held out by industry proponents of lasers and high-power microwave bursts, military officials and senators from both sides of the aisle said that lack of funding was putting a crimp on the necessary research and testing for the new weapons under the constraints of the 2011 Budget Control Act.

“We’re on an unaffordable path” for research, said Adm. William E. Gortney, who was expected to retire this summer as head of U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said at an April 13 Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces hearing on Ballistic Missiles Defense Policies and Programs.

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US Missile Defense Agency Wants a Laser Weapon for Missile Defense by 2021

The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) hopes in 2021 to have developed and demonstrated an aerial laser with which it could intercept and destroy ballistic missiles.

Specifically, the agency wants "a low-power laser, in the 100-kW range, to prove the coherency and physics part" of destroying a ballistic missile from an unmanned airborne platform, MDA director Vice Admiral James Syring told the Senate on 13 April.

He said MDA wants to field a prototype to help gage if there is a feasible material solution, and explained that the effort would not be on the same large scale as the manned Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser Testbed (also known as the Airborne Laser: ABL), a multibillion development effort that was ultimately cancelled in 2009 after Secretary of Defense Robert Gates found the technology and operating concept unworkable.

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US Navy Progress Report to Congress on Railgun & Laser Weapon Development

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Raytheon's KTech Contracted to Convert 2 Cruise Missiles Into EMP Weapons for Demo

Raytheon’s acquisition of directed energy firm Ktech in 2011 is paying dividends following the US Defense Department’s award of a $4.8 million contract to repackage two air-launched cruise missiles as high-power microwave weapons.

Ktech produced the pulsing electronics kit that Boeing proved could knock out banks of computers in an October 2012 flight demonstration, overseen by the US Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL).

The award to Raytheon is the first significant movement on the so-called Counter-electronics High-power microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) since that 2012 demonstration. The announcement is a blow to Boeing, which no longer leads the effort.

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US Army Wants Laser Weapons by 2023

Responding to lawmakers' questions about how close the Army is to developing offensive and defensive directed-energy weapons, Mary J. Miller responded: "I believe we're very close."

Miller, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Research and Technology, and other experts testified before the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, Feb. 24. Miller's topic was the Army's Science and Technology, or S&T, Program for fiscal year 2017.

The Army's S&T effort is committed to pursuing high-energy lasers, she said. That effort has been used in an analysis of alternatives for the Indirect Fire Protection Capability program of record.

Now, that effort has been "aligned to transition into a program of record in the fiscal 2023 timeframe," she said. It's already planned and funded.

"Why that long?" she asked rhetorically.

Because it's being done in a "step-wise demonstration of capability," she said. "We have to make sure the lasers work and do the full set of scopes against the threats we project. And those threats include the counter-rockets, counter-artillery and counter-mortar as well as [Unmanned Aerial Vehicle] and cruise missile threats."

Miller explained that the Army wants to understand the lasers' full capabilities "before we offer it to a Soldier."

Operators need to trust what lasers can do, she added.

"Lasers have been promised for a long time, but they've never held up and delivered what was asked for, so the operators are rightfully skeptical," she pointed out. That's why the Army is taking lasers out into operational environments and testing them.

In the meantime, "there will be steps along the way where we spin off lesser capable laser systems that can do good things on smaller platforms. Those will come out soon," she concluded.

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Germans Test 10 kilowatt Laser on Naval Platform

Rheinmetall and the German armed forces have completed a recent test of their high-energy laser effector on a German warship.

During the test, a 10-kilowatt high-energy laser, or HEL, was mounted on a MLG 27 light naval gun. The HEL was then used to track potential targets, which included unmanned aerial vehicles and stationary land targets.

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Boeing Committed to CHAMP EMP Weapon, UAV Projects

Despite all the hype surrounding the high-power microwave energy weapon known as CHAMP, interest in the computer-frying device assembled and tested by Boeing Phantom Works and the US Air Force Research Laboratory appears stalled.

“There was a lot of activity when we did the demonstration a couple of years ago, and with the budget constraint on the department, they’ve been unable to make it through, to our knowledge,” Phantom Works president Darryl Davis tells Flightglobal at a defence forum in Washington today. “From where it I sit; it has not translated into money or work.”

The Boeing-branded directed energy weapon has caught the attention of some in Congress, who have been lobbying for more investment in the 'counter-electronics high-powered microwave advanced missile project (CHAMP)'.

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British Royal Navy to Test Directed Energy Weapon at sea, Participating in American Railgun Development

The UK Royal Navy (RN) plans to test a directed energy weapon at sea later this decade, the service's most senior officer has revealed.

Speaking at the DSEI 2015 exhibition on 15 September, Chief of Naval Staff and First Sea Lord Admiral Sir George Zambellas also disclosed that RN exchange personnel are working on the US Navy's (USN's) Electromagnetic (EM) Railgun Innovative Naval Prototype (INP) programme.

"Energy weapons don't require conventional ammunition," Adm Zambellas told the DSEI audience. "With a cost-per-shot potentially measured in pence rather than pounds, they offer a route to address the spiralling costs of missile development and production, as well as reducing supply chain demands."

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Air Force Special Operations Command Wants 120 kw Laser for AC-130s by 2020

The head of Air Force Special Operations Command said he wants to to put a laser weapon on an AC-130J Ghostrider gunship by the end of the decade.

Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold talked about the effort Tuesday during an interview with Military​.com at the Air and Space Conference near Washington, D.C. The event was organized by the Air Force Association.

“I’ve got the space and the weight and the power” to install a potentially 120-kilowatt laser weapon on the next-generation gunship, he said. “I can carve out the weight” required, which is about 5,000 pounds, he said. “I’ve got enough fuel. Now we got to put in a beam director and I think the industry — if we get the right teammates together — can put that capability on an AC-130.”

The Pentagon has long been interested in developing directed-energy weapons. The Navy last year tested a 20-kilowatt laser aboard the amphibious transport ship USS Ponce.

The Air Force and the Pentagon’s research arm this summer began ground testing a 150-kilowatt-class electric laser built by General Atomics against rockets, mortars, vehicles and surrogate surface-to-air missiles at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The project, known as the Demonstrator Laser Weapon System, or DLWS, is based on Darpa’s High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System, or Hellads.

[...]

AFSOC wants to first use a laser to defend the AC-130 from surface-to-air missiles, then for offensive roles, the general said.

“So first concept is defending the aircraft using high-energy laser capability against missiles,” he said. “The second is now to be able to use that high-energy laser in an offensive role against hardened targets. So the challenge is to have that capability by the close of the decade, by 2020, and I think we can do that.”

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John Connor: Say Hi to Boeing's 2 Kilowatt Anti Drone Laser

Hang on to your drone. Boeing’s developed a laser cannon specifically designed to turn unmanned aircraft into flaming wreckage.

The aerospace company’s new weapon system, which it publicly tested this week in a New Mexico industrial park, isn’t quite as cool as what you see in Star Wars—there’s no flying beams of light, no “pew! pew!” sound effects. But it is nonetheless a working laser cannon, and it will take your drone down.

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You could mount that about anywhere.  You just need 2 kw (plus) of power for it.

US Air Force "Aggressive" Laser Plans

The Air Force, however, is focused on fighters. That’s a tighter fit than gunships or bombers, so the Air Force Research Laboratory has a relatively cautious three-phase plan, AFRL commander Maj. Gen. Thomas Masiello said at the conference:

1. A defensive system with “tens of kilowatts” of power called SHIELD, the Self-protected HIgh-Energy Laser Demonstration. It will be demonstrated circa 2020.

2. A longer-range defensive system with 100 kilowatts of power, to be demonstrated in 2022.

3. A 300-kilowatt offensive system capable of destroying enemy aircraft and ground targets at long range.

All these systems will be weapons pods or other external add-ons to existing aircraft, not “fully integrated” inside the airframe like a gun or radar, Masiello cautioned. That means radar-evading aircraft like the F-35 or F-22 couldn’t use them without sacrificing stealth. “We’re talking decades to have some sort of a 300-kw laser possibly integrated into a fighter,” he said.

The SHIELD demo will also look at engaging “soft” ground targets on behalf of Lt. Gen. Heithold and Air Force Special Operations Command. “Soft” wasn’t clearly defined, but it probably means sensors, communications equipment, and other delicate but high-value systems.

After SHIELD, though, it seems likely the fighter laser and the gunship laser will diverge, since the AC-130 has so much more space, weight, and power available. Special Operations is also famous for getting new technology into the field faster than the regular military, albeit in small quantities.

On an AC-130, “it is relatively easy to give up 5-10,000 pounds of weight to this,” Hehithold said. A gunship with a high-energy laser is just “a couple of years out,” he said. For the Air Force laser effort as a whole, he said, “that might be where we start.”

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US Air Force Unveiled Roadmap for Deployment of EMP Weapons

The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has unveiled a technology roadmap for its cruise missile-based “CHAMP” high-power microwave (HPM) weapon, which successfully fried banks of computers at a test range in October 2012.

The organisation says it is working on an improved, second-generation “multi-shot, multi-target HPM cruise missile” that builds on the mature counter-electronics high-power microwave advanced missile project payload previously demonstrated.

Based on past comments by AFRL officials, this next iteration of the Boeing and Raytheon-built system will probably be carried on an extended-range Lockheed Martin AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM-ER).

The laboratory is also eyeing an “HPM advanced missile” in the longer term with a more sophisticated CHAMP-like payload, and then eventual integration with a manned or unmanned aircraft.

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Future Military March #1: of Lasers, Pain Rays and Railguns

I had started out writing about military lasers and how they were virtually here and some of the history and implications.  Its only about a third done.  However, the blogosphere exploded with tons of news on lasers and their status and whatnot.  So I am going to scrap that post in favor of a quick run down on on the news and links much like the Robopocalypse Reports.

First off the Russians are doing their classic pull out the old Soviet equipment (or claim to) to try to compete with the American new tech.  In this case, they are claiming they are pulling back from museums (or threatening to) old blinding laser tanks.  Yup, the USSR built lasers in turrets on T-80 chassis to blind optics and whatnot.  Its a larger version of what the US Army developed with the AN/VLQ-7 Stringray laser for the Bradley IFV.

Secondly, the Iranians decided to fire a laser on a US Navy ship and helicopter in the Gulf of Aden.  It was low powered and obnoxious rather than damaging.  However, it prompted Secretary of the Navy Mabus to tell the US Navy to get its act together and move faster with deploying those lasers they have been developing.

 Breaking Defense walks through the status of various laser programs and the battle they face.

The US Air Force has retained some retired C-130U gunships for laser weapon demonstrations.  These demos would be for both offensive (attack ground target, etc) and defensive (shoot down incoming antiaircraft missile) weapons.  Even for Active Denial System (aka pain ray) tests.  Actually the US Special Forces want the ADS specifically for nonlethal options.  The USAF has stated they believe lasers will allow more flexibility and capability.

It should be noted the HELLADS laser which is, at report, 150 kw is being tested at WSMR. DARPA has offered the laser to the navy to test on a Burke class destroyer in 2018 and to the US Air Force as well.  The goal, which seems to have been met, is to have no more than 5 kg per kilowatt of beam power.  A 150 kw HELLADS would weigh 750 kg.  A single module, each producing a 75 kw beam, is said to be 130 cm by 30 cm by 50 cm (51.2 inches by 11.8 inches by 19.7 inches).  The modules can be aggregated to at least 300 kw or possibly more (as I've said before).

The USNI discusses the Navy's plans for laser - to send a 150 kw laser to sea in 2018 - and its plans for railguns.  A manually loaded railgun will be put to sea on a Joint High Speed Vessel next year.  The follow-on railgun with the ability to fire 10 rounds per minute will go to sea in 2018.  The Navy finished the study on placing a railgun on the last Zumwalt class destroyer.  As I have stated before, in the tour de force USS MC Perry class (and here), they really ought to place one on the Independence derived class Small Surface Combatant frigate.  The space and the layout just makes sense.

The US Army is beginning to get into the railgun mood (but Jane's hides it well).  Their interest is in ballistic missile defense and presumably general air defense since there will be times when the Army's lasers will be degraded by weather.

Russian Militaria: PAK-FA, FGFA, PAK-DA's Engine & Claims of a High Power Microwave Weapon

United Aircraft Corp. plans to deliver three more prototypes of an advanced stealth fighter jet to the Russian military for testing as early as next year, a company official said.

The president of the Moscow-based company, Yuri Slyusar, said three more of the T-50 PAK-FA, a fifth-generation stealth fighter made by United Aircraft subsidiary Sukhoi, will be transferred to the Russian air force in late 2016 or early 2016 as part of a test program.

“We can say that we are in the schedule and these three additional prototypes will allow us to greatly expand the testing program and do it faster,” he said through a translator during a briefing with reporters Monday at the Paris Air Show. “What we’re speaking about in the schedule is to deliver the first batch at the end of 2016, beginning of 2017 to the customer, the ministry of defense, so the aircraft demonstrate all necessary and design characteristics.”

That will bring the total number of T-50 prototypes to eight, according to a fact sheet distributed at the event. The PAK-FA first flew in 2011 and is designed to compete against such U.S. military aircraft as the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, both of which are made by Lockheed Martin Corp.

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Ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Russia on July 7, the Defence Ministry is toning down points of conflict about the joint Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) program to reach final agreement with Russia, said an MoD source.

FGFA is proposed to be jointly developed and produced by India and Russia and a preliminary development agreement was signed in 2011 between Russia's United Aircraft Corp. (UAC) and India's Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) when India paid its 50 percent share of US $250 million toward initial development cost.

However, a final agreement, which will release a payment of about $6 billion as India's share in FGFA development, has yet to be inked because of conflict over issues relating to work share, a firm aircraft order from the Indian Air Force, its desired mix of single- and double-seat aircraft, and changes demanded by the Indian Air Force.

The Defence Ministry wants to reach an agreement, will not insist on the Indian work share at this stage and will agree to delivery of single-seater aircraft as against the earlier demand of two-seaters, the source added.

A firm order of 154 FGFAs will also be included in the draft agreement, the source said.

Defense analysts said that despite the delays, the FGFA project will not be dropped.

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The first engine test bench (LED), created for the PAK DA (PAK DA) showed almost complete compliance with the required specifications, told RIA Novosti CEO of "United Engine Building Corporation" (UEC, is a Rostec) Vladislav Masalov at the air show Paris Air Show -2015.

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Russia’s United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation (UIMC), part of Rostec Corporation, has announced that it developed a super-high-frequency gun for BUK missile systems.

The newly-developed equipment is capable of deactivating the radio electronics of UAVs and the warheads of precision weapons, according to a representative of the corporation.

The equipment, informally named the microwave gun, has been developed for the needs of Russia’s Defense Ministry and will be demonstrated during the closed part of Army-2015, an international event organized by the Russian Defense Ministry, the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and state technology corporation Rostec, which will be held on June 16-19.

The UIMC representative has not revealed all the technical characteristics of the equipment but has mentioned that the impact range of the equipment is ten kilometers and that its defense perimeter is 360 degrees.

“The new system is equipped with a high-power relativistic generator and reflector antenna, management and control system, and a transmission system which is fixed on the chassis of BUK surface-to-air missile systems. When mounted on a special platform, the ‘microwave gun’ is capable of ensuring perimeter defense at 360 degrees,” the representative said.

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Flight Global questions the Russian military modernization plans.

US Air Force Placing 150 Kilowatt Laser in External Weapons Pod by 2022

Star Wars fans, calm down. The US Air Force wants to fire a 100-plus-kilowatt laser from a small plane. And not just any airplane, Air Force Research Laboratory officials. The last laser on an airplane — the megawatt Airborne Laser, which filled a converted 747 and cancelled in 2011 — the 2022 demonstration will be fired from a fighter.

But this isn’t a real-world X-Wing. It probably won’t even be an F-35A because that’s a stealth aircraft that carries its weapons inside to give it a smaller radar cross section. Instead, the 2022 weapon will be built into an external weapons pod.

It’s a crawl-walk-run approach, said Morley Stone, the Air Force Research Laboratory’s chief technology officer. Modern electrically powered, solid-state laser technology is “orders of magnitude” simpler and more compact than the vats of toxic chemicals that powered the cancelled Airborne Laser, Stone told reporters at Thursday’s “DoD Lab Day” in the Pentagon courtyard. But technological advances still don’t make putting lasers on airplanes simple. So, he said, “before we start getting into really what we consider a lot of risk with internal carriage integration, we’re going to look at external integration via a pod.”

Even an external pod on a fighter, however, is a much tighter and more challenging fit for a laser weapon than, say, the massive weapons bay on an AC-130 gunship. Special Operations Command wants a laser cannon on future AC-130s, but “what we’re doing is taking the most challenging case, and that’s on a fighter,” said AFRL director Maj. Gen. Thomas Masiello. “As technology advances, it can be spun right of into a larger platform like the AC-130.”

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The implication is the F-X fighter will have a laser onboard: both as an offensive and defensive weapon.  Likely, a laser will be placed on the Long Range Strike Bomber as well, possibly as an add on capability.