The research and development arm of the US Department of Defense plans to establish drone-mounted laser weapons, a scheme referred to as ‘Project Endurance’ in the agency’s 2014 budget request.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) seeks to produce “technology for pod-mounted lasers to protect a variety of airborne platforms from emerging and legacy EO/IR [electro-optical and infrared] guided surface-to-air missiles.”
DARPA’s FY2014 budget request explains that Endurance will be the first application of the Excalibur laser defense system, which fosters optical-phased array technologies for lasers much lighter than high-power chemical lasers and capable of use as weapons.
“The focus of the Endurance effort…will be on miniaturizing component technologies, developing high-precision target tracking, identification, and lightweight agile beam control to support target engagement. The program will also focus on the phenomenology of laser-target interaction and associated threat vulnerabilities,” DARPA says.
“In other words,” as Motherboard wrote of the project, “DARPA hopes that drone-mounted lasers will soon be able to shoot missiles out of the sky.”
Endurance contracts have been given to military-contracting titans Northrop Grumman ($14.6 million) and Lockheed Martin ($11.4 million), according to Military & Aerospace Electronics.
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