Following the news earlier this month that the US Army conducted tests of a new 50-kW high-energy Laser Weapons System (LWS) integrated with the Stryker IFV chassis as part of its ongoing Directed Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense (DE M-SHORAD) program;

Tristan Sauer, Land Domain Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“As has been demonstrated by the recent conflict in Ukraine, combined arms operations utilizing small-unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) and artillery pose a devastating threat to military ground forces. Militaries worldwide have already fielded several systems designed to defeat ballistic ordonnance in lower atmospheres—such as the US Army’s Counter-Rocket, Artillery and Mortar (C-RAM) or the Israeli Iron Dome. However, a prevailing issue with each of these systems is the exorbitantly high cost of ammunition. Indeed, the C-RAM’s 20mm HEIT-SD ammunition cost $27 per round, while each interceptor of the Iron Dome costs an estimated $50,000.

“For several years, studies have shown LWS to offer an effective long-term solution to this problem due to their nearly unlimited supply of ammunition with a negligible per-shot cost. The US and various other nations have been looking to incorporate LWS in the air, land, maritime and space domains, however the complexity of integrating laser modules with other critical hardware had limited most militaries’ ability to field these systems.

“Nonetheless, the DE M-SHORAD demonstration illustrates how this technology continues to progressively mature, creating new opportunities for both primes and disruptors within the defense sector to enter a market with significant growth potential.

“According to GlobalData’s report, ‘Directed Energy Weapons (Defense), 2021 Update – Thematic Research’, the global directed energy weapons (DEW) market was valued at an estimated $4.1 billion in 2020, with the US accounting for the largest share of expenditure at 41.6%, followed by China and France with 14.8% and 13.9% respectively. Several other nations have indicated a growing interest in DEWs, particularly the LWS variety. The British Ministry of Defence awarded £30 million to a defense consortium comprising MBDA, Leonardo, QinetiQ, BAE Systems and others for the development of Dragonfire LWS back in 2017, while more recently Israel revealed in April that they had successfully tested a laser-based variant of the Iron Dome dubbed the ‘Iron Beam’, which reportedly costs a mere $3.50 per shot.

“Due to the numerous advantages LWS offer in terms of accuracy, scalable lethality, logistics and modularity, it is certain that this technology will have a transformative effect on the conduct of modern warfare in the coming decades. The speed and scope of this transformation will be determined by the ability of both governments and the global defense industry to sustain investment during the typically challenging research and development stages, as failure to do so will guarantee a lack of overmatch in future engagements.”