The Air Force no longer plans on installing and operating a high-energy laser weapon on a special operations gunship due to “technical challenges,” an official said, bringing the service’s latest attempt at an airborne directed-energy system to an end after years in development.
A spokesman for Air Force Special Operations Command confirmed to Military.com that its Airborne High Energy Laser, or AHEL, missed its “available integration and flight test window” for operations from an AC-130J Ghostrider gunship amid open-air ground testing.
AFSOC had previously stated in November 2023 that airborne testing of the AHEL would commence in January 2024 and finish in June. As The War Zone noted, that window already represented a delay from a previously promised testing period of fiscal 2021.
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While the AHEL achieved ” significant end-to-end, high-power operation” during ground tests, the missed integration and flight test window prompted AFSOC to “[refocus] on ground testing to improve operations and reliability to posture for a successful hand-off for use by other agencies,” the command spokesman said.
In short, the AHEL may live to fight another day as part of a different Air Force agency’s directed-energy efforts, but it will likely never see battle from the catbird seat of a special operations gunship.
Air Force Special…
