Laser Missile Defense Carried by UAV To Be Demonstrated

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The US has been looking for a laser missile defense weapon carried by un unmanned aerial vehicle. A $9.4 million contract for the Low Power Laser Demonstrator (LPLD) that aims to fire a laser beam from a UAV has been awarded to Lockheed Martin.

Under this contract, the company will perform the next step for the LPLD Phase 1 effort that addresses laser power and aperture size by integrating and testing a low power laser on an unmanned aerial vehicle.

The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA)  is looking for the next generation of laser technology to build upon the LPLD and firmly establish a U.S. capacity to defeat enemy ballistic missiles in their Boost Phase.

According to defenseworld.net, the MDA is seeking a new high altitude long endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle with the unique capacity to carry a high energy laser system that can stop enemy missiles when they have barely left the launch pad. The LPLD project is to demonstrate the feasibility of firing a laser from a UAV before it gets on to developing a high energy laser system.

The work has an estimated completion date of July 5, 2018. The period of performance is nine-months from Oct. 6, 2017 through July 5, 2018.

“Our vision is to shift the calculus of our potential adversaries by introducing these systems into the ballistic missile defense system,” a spokesman for the MDA had said last year. “This could revolutionize missile defense, dramatically reducing the role of kinetic interceptors”.

The LPLD was designed to test the decision by the MDA to use an electric solid-state laser, rather than a chemical one, in its high altitude aerial vehicles.

It was intended to demonstrate the exact type of laser and packaging platform that would be needed for the planned HALE UAV, according to the MDA announcement last year.