According to the globaltimes.cn site, citing the specialized site on Chinese defense equipment weain.mil.cn, the Chinese armies are said to have undertaken the development of a "laser attack pod" intended to equip aircraft in service. It appears that depending on the terminology used, this pod would probably be intended to protect these same aircraft by intercepting air-to-air or surface-to-air missiles on the sights using a high-power laser beam, and not a guidance system for them. air-to-ground ammunition.
This announcement is reminiscent of the SHIELD system under development in the US Air Force, also intended to act as an active anti-missile protection system, or Hard-Kill, to protect its aircraft and in particular its strategic bombers. On the other hand, the claims made by the Chinese article regarding the destruction of enemy aircraft by such a system are probably very exaggerated. Indeed, to be effective against an aircraft over sufficiently short exposure times, such a laser should have a power exceeding 500 Kw, exceeding the electrical energy production capacities of current aircraft.
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