The Pentagon has launched a $700 million cash program to combat ISIS’ lethal fleet of drones. ISIS is increasingly using drones on the battlefield, and the Pentagon hopes that the new cash programme will help to combat these weapons.
Lockheed Martin’s laser is a beam combined fiber laser, meaning it brings together individual lasers, created through fiber optics, to generate a single, intense laser beam. This allows for a scalable laser system that can be made more powerful by adding more fiber laser subunits. Athena uses Lockheed Martin’s company’s 30-kW Accelerated Laser Demonstration Initiative (ALADIN). It’s powered by a compact Rolls-Royce turbo generator.
Lockheed 30 kw Athena laser managed to take down all five test drones in a test at White Sands.
The air force is buying 600 ‘Skynet’ anti-drone rounds from AMTEC Less Lethal Systems (ALS). The 12 gauge shotgun shells release a five foot net to trap the drone’s propellers causing it to fall from the sky.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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