Rheinmetall tests laser weapon technology

Rheinmetall has completed a series of comprehensive trials with a new weapon station at its Ochsenboden test centre in Zürich, Switzerland, the company announced on 28 February.

The weapon station, in combination with a laser, demonstrated its speed and precision in tests conducted in December 2018. The weapon station can be equipped with lasers in the 100 kW output power range. During the tests, UAS and mortar rounds were successfully engaged at operationally relevant ranges.

The laser weapon station is the latest stage of the process in which Rheinmetall has transformed laser weapon technology into a fully functional weapon system. It consists of four main components: the laser source, beam director with the telescope, and coarse tracker. The mobile weapon station can mechanically point the laser towards the target.

During the tests, the laser weapon station was combined with a beam director and advanced lasers. It can also be combined with an upcoming 20 kW laser source.

Now that the weapon station, specially designed to meet the requirements of a laser weapon station, has been successfully realised, Rheinmetall has all of the principal assemblies for a future laser weapon system.

The modular and scalable assemblies are suitable for ground, air and naval operations modular and can be deployed on all types of military platforms.

The laser weapon station offers an accurate mechanical aiming function, coupled with an unlimited, 360° traversing zone and an elevation range in excess of 270°. The system architecture (EN DIN 61508) is closely oriented to the Mantis air defence system.