Army Successfully Tests 10 Kw Vehicle Mounted Laser

The Daily Mail reports:

The device was equipped with a 10-kilowatt solid state laser and a radar system mounted atop a heavy truck. 

During the tests a 'quarter-sized' invisible laser beam successfully targeted and destroyed more than 90 incoming mortar rounds and six to seven unmanned drones. 

Terry Bauer, the project manager for the laser program, told ABC News the test results were 'above and beyond' what they had expected going into the testing.

'We had no thoughts that this 10-kilowatt would be as successful n doing that as it has been,' he said. 

Mortars are common battlefield weapons that are hard to protect against because they can be fired from short distances. 

The mortars used in the test were standard 60 millimeter rounds – the length of a football — fired from a distance of less than two kilometers in salvos of two to three mortar rounds each.

The laser’s success rate against incoming mortar shells indicates that battlefield protection from the small explosive rounds could be possible in a few years.