Raytheon, Kord to Provide High-Powered Laser Weapons via $124M Army Contract

Military solutions providers Kord Technologies and Raytheon Intelligence and Space have secured a $123.9 million contract to install additional 50 kW high-energy laser weapons systems on three Stryker A1 vehicles.

As the prime contractor, Kord will serve as the lead integrator and will provide the power management and cooling systems for the solutions. Meanwhile, Raytheon will provide the main system, a beam director, an electro-optical/infrared target acquisition and tracking system and a Ku720 multi-mission radar.

Work is expected to be completed by the end of the fiscal year 2022, SIGNAL Magazine reported.

Raytheon Intelligence and Space Director of High Energy Lasers and Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems Evan Hunt said in a call with SIGNAL that the entire laser weapon solutions suite can track multiple targets at once, allowing warfighters to determine the scale of a certain threat. Soldiers can also use the system to zoom in on potential threats to improve decision-making.

The weapons system was tested during an event in the spring of 2021. Army testers were able to operate the system after a series of training exercises and were able to engage multiple targets at once. Neither Raytheon nor Kord configured the system to specifically meet test scenarios, nor did they provide assistance to servicemen.

The Stryker A1 was developed by General Dynamics Land Systems and is designed as a deployable fighting vehicle. It was meant to be more lethal than light vehicles while being more maneuverable than heavy combat vehicles such as the M1 Abrams battle tank. Some of the weapons equipped on current A1 units are .50cal M2 machine guns, 105-mm artillery units and Mk-19 grenade launchers.