The US Army will receive its first DE-SHORAD laser Guardian this year

Protection against light and medium drones, including stray munitions, is now a critical issue for a modern armed force. Depending on the country, different solutions have been put forward, employing mobile artillery systems, light missiles and even anti-drone drones. But the most promising solution in this field remains that based on directed energy weapons, and that is this type of system that the US Army has been developing urgently for 3 years. One of these systems is the Guardian, from the DE-SHORAD program, a Stryker armored vehicle mounted with a 50 Kw laser, capable of attacking category 1, 2 and even 3 drones, as well as than, to some extent, mortar shells and artillery rockets (the lightest).

The development of the Guardian has been drum beating, the service providers not managing to follow the rhythm imposed by the US Army being simply thanked. The prototype of the system, equipped with a laser designed by the company Raytheon, was able to carry out its first tests rich in lessons in real conditions at the end of last year, and will begin a new phase of tests at the beginning of the year. , to allow delivery of the first systems to an operational unit at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in September of this year. At the same time, the US Army intends to re-organize the competition deemed critical in terms of capability. Indeed, if Raytheon and Korb were selected to produce the prototypes and pre-production equipment, it is above all due to the fact that other companies, such as Northrop, which was also developing a solution for the laser itself, had not been able to keep up with the frantic pace imposed.

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