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Rheinmetall and MBDA win contract for Naval Laser Weapons System
MBDA and Rheinmetall won a contract to fabricate, integrate and support testing of a laser weapon demonstrator in the maritime environment.
28 January 2021
MBDA and Rheinmetall won a contract to fabricate, integrate and support testing of a laser weapon demonstrator in the maritime environment.
This year, the U.S. Navy will field the first acquisition program to deploy the High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance, or HELIOS, a laser weapon system with high-energy fiber lasers for permanent fielding by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Rheinmetall will develop a key future laser weapon system component which will be tested aboard German Navy (Deutsche Marine) F124 class frigate Sachsen.
Amphibious transport dock ship USS Portland (LPD 27) successfully disabled an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a Solid State Laser – Technology Maturation Laser Weapon System Demonstrator (LWSD) MK 2 MOD 0 on May 16.
The High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) met U.S. Navy requirements and will be integrated onto an Arleigh Burke destroyer in 2021.
Lockheed Martin received an Office of Naval Research (ONR) contract to integrate a prototype Layered Laser Defense (LLD) weapon system aboard a U.S. Navy Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).
The U.S. Navy recently installed the first Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN), a laser weapon system that allows a ship to counter unmanned aerial systems. The first system was installed on the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105), during her recently completed Dry-Docking Selected Restricted Availability.
Following a U.S. Department of Defense announcement in September 2019, BAE Systems announced that the U.S. Navy has signed a $2.68 billion indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract for the purchase of thousands of additional APKWS Laser-Guided Rockets
Rheinmetall and MBDA Deutschland have agreed to collaborate in the high-energy laser effectors domain. The two companies intend to construct, integrate and test a laser demonstrator for the German Navy’s corvette K130.
Rheinmetall continues to make steady headway in the world of laser weapons, having recently completed a number of comprehensive trials with a weapon station. In combination with a laser, the weapon station demonstrated its speed and precision in tests conducted in December 2018. The weapon station can be armed with lasers in the 100 kW output power range.
