Development analysis of American directed energy maneuver short-range air defense program

American directed energy maneuver-short range air defense (DE M-SHORAD) program provides air protection to the maneuvering forces by defeating, destroying, or neutralizing rotary-wing unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), fixed-wing UAS, and rockets, artillery and mortar (RAM) threats, which is one of the priorities of the army air defense and anti-missile modernization. Firstly, the development program of DE M-SHORAD system was introduced. Then, its system architecture was analyzed in detail, and the combat performance was deduced from the system parameters. Finally, the development progress of the system was reviewed. Through the comprehensive analysis, it was showed that the DE M-SHORAD system adopted the optimal components for the integration of laser weapon systems on armored vehicles through a rapid prototyping approach. In order to mitigate the technical risks, the development approach of this program was divided into two phases, first integrating and testing the 2 kW~5 kW mobile experimental high-energy laser (MEHEL), and then developing the 50 kW multi-mission high-energy laser (MMHEL). The calculation results show that the maximum range of MEHEL and MMHEL for UAS is about 0.77 km and 4.8 km, respectively.