The new system is a true game-changer, in multiple ways. The USAF ability to hit targets anywhere is well-known, and has naturally generated a lot of heat in terms of anti-air systems. The old Iraqi AAA was no match for modern airstrikes, but newer SAM systems are a real threat.
On the ground, the solution to missiles is a class of anti-ordnance technology used in tanks to destroy incoming anti-tank missiles, even RPGs fired from close range. It’s highly effective, automatic, and can smash up practically anything. Those systems are ballistic, using buckshot or similar materials as neutralizers.
The new airborne laser systems are also self defence systems, which have the theoretical capacity for rapid fire and very high close range effectiveness. These are the Phase 2 LANCE systems, called SHIELD, (Self-protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator) and they’re now up for contract for further development. The completed weapons are expected to mounted on pods on fighters. A turret-based 360 degree system is also under testing.
The ramifications of these systems for air warfare are exponential. Theoretically, any laser can fire at the same rate as a laser light show. When SHIELD becomes operational, just about all current air tactics are instantly obsolete, and so are the logistics of air warfare. A laser beam is the ultimate cheap kill, in many ways.
The current models for airborne systems are defensive, but an attack mode is obviously possible. They could take on multiple targets, basically eating up anti-air capacity. A defender could use up all their missiles and be defenceless in a thorough “take out the trash” attack by a dedicated AA-hunting system.
Tactically, this is a very high level of superiority. Even hypersonic missiles wouldn’t do too well against an aerial lawnmower of lasers which can precision track them and shoot them down in a second. Missiles have multiple vulnerabilities themselves, and fried electronics, guidance or warhead dysfunction alone can make them pretty useless.
It means the end of old style anti air and air combat missile systems. Ironically, the old cannon systems might be more effective than any missile currently in operation. Stopping a small cannon round is a lot harder than stopping a missile. Micro-missiles might work, but they’re still missiles, with a high electromagnetic profile in the air, and would be easier to spot.
Not yet mentioned, but due to enter the thinking sooner rather than later, you don’t even have to mount airborne lasers on planes. Mounted on drones, SHIELD or an attack version of it would be a major airborne pest. They could take out chopper missiles like Hellfire and practically anything else they could detect. Ground forces could use SHIELD drones like they use current drones, as do-everything options for organic capacity and defence against enemy air attacks. (That’d also free up friendly air capacity, no trivial consideration.)
Laser weapon systems have been under development almost since the day lasers were discovered. (Well, who could resist the chance to be the first to invent a real heat ray, after all?) The first issues with weaponized lasers were power and beam dispersion. Then came getting these unwieldy things in to the air at all, first done on airliners.
Since then, the evolution of new systems and power packs for mobile lasers have eliminated most of the technical problems. The issue now is who gets to build it. Proposals have been called for by the USAF, after which development will proceed to the operational stage.
Other air-fired laser weapons are also being developed and are expected to be in service in the 2020s. Don’t be too surprised to hear that the entire military industrial complex is retooling to meet the demands of a type of warfare nobody’s ever seen before.
