WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US Army remains several years away from deploying 50-kilowatt (kW) high energy lasers on Stryker armored vehicles in the field, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said in congressional testimony Thursday.
"I don't want to mislead you. These programs are not ready for prime time yet in the fielded force," Milley said. "So you're talking several years here of consistent, predictable funding to make those [lasers] real, developed and distributed to the force. Several years."
Milley was testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee about the Army's budget requests for fiscal year 2018.
A 50kW laser would be capable of shooting down drones and small aircraft, as well as intercepting mortar bombs in mid-flight.
