Rheinmetall and MBDA have met a major milestone in moving their containerized laser weapon system to market. After a year of sea trials, the high-energy laser is moving to further land-based testing before going operational with the German Navy in 2029.
It wasn’t so long ago that laser weapons were exotic props from science fiction that only two or three countries were working on in the form of extremely complex and impractical experimental lash ups. Today, at least a dozen nations are working on laser weapons that are being fielded or moving to the open market.
The reasons behind this are fairly simple. A practical laser weapon, which only costs about a dollar a round, has tremendous advantages, especially against drones and other small, fast, inexpensive targets that don’t warrant a countermeasure costing hundreds of thousands of dollars a shot.
One of these systems is the high-energy laser being developed by Germany’s Rheinmetall and MBDA. Designed as an all-in-one system that can fit inside a standard shipping container, it has been undergoing sea trials aboard the German Navy frigate Sachsen for over a year, with 100 live-fire tests conducted to evaluate its robustness, performance, effectiveness, and precision.
These trials included tracking and neutralizing “non-cooperative” drones, drone swarms and speedboats, as well as tracking targets against the open sky, which can be difficult because of the lack of contrast between sky and target.
According to Rheinmetall, the laser system has now been transferred to the Laser Competence Centre at the Technical Centre for Weapons and Ammunition (WTD 91) in Meppen for further land-based testing with an emphasis on dealing with drone attacks. The hope is that it will enter service with the German Navy in 2029 and the system’s capabilities will be expanded to deal with supersonic missiles, mortars, rockets, and artillery shells.
Source: Rheinmetall
