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In addition, the Air Force has a clear incentive to make SHiELD a success. It is difficult to emphasize how revolutionary a laser-based defense system would be for virtually any military aircraft. Unlike cons-consumable countermeasures such as hot flares or blinding straws, or electronic warfare systems, a laser weapon will actively zeros on an incoming missile rather than simply emitting a kind of distraction to confuse the threat. A directed energy weapon also has an effectively bottomless charger.
This does not mean that SHiELD, at least as currently described, has no limits. A turret laser can never engage only one target at a time and the risk of above mentioned atmospheric disturbances reduces the radius of action and the beam efficiency. Any future laser missile defense system will likely be part of a layered self-protection suite on future aircraft, which could include a combination of advanced options, including enhanced electronic warfare jammers, towed lures, interceptors of mass destruction, etc.
There is really no reason why SHIELD, or a derivative of it, could be used as an offensive role during a visual range combat against another real plane or as a weapon air-to-ground against soft targets. A defensive gondola laser could also serve as a starting point for an attacking system designed specifically for this purpose.
In October 2018, AFRL announced that it was looking for companies likely to offer a laser directed or microwave energy weapon for precision airborne strike missions, as well as distinct defensive roles from the SHiELD effort. . In addition, the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) was considering adding an offensive laser capability to its AC-130J Ghostrider fighter aircraft by 2022, although it appears that this schedule has been delayed.
If everything goes as planned, it will take about two years to the Air Force to present a complete prototype of the SHiELD system built into a plane the size of a fighter plane. But this last test done at White Sands shows that the program is on the right track to realize this revolutionary capacity.
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