Lockheed Martin announced on 16th Sep that it has delivered a 300-kilowatt laser to the US Defense Department that will integrate it into a US Army high-energy laser demonstration later this year.The defense corporation has developed the laser under the Pentagon’s High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI) which is an effort to strengthen the directed energy industrial base and improve the quality and power of laser beams.Viewers may note that the Pentagon selected Lockheed in 2019 to “scale its spectral beam combined high energy laser architecture to the 300 kW-class level,” as part of the HELSI effort, according to the release. The release also notes that the company completed the task ahead of schedule.Rick Cordaro, vice president, of Lockheed Martin Advanced Product Solutions, said“Lockheed Martin increased the power and efficiency and reduced the weight and volume of continuous-wave high energy lasers which reduces the risk for future fielding efforts of high power laser weapon systems,”In this video Defense Updates analyzes why Lockheed Martin’s delivery of a 300-kilowatt laser is an important milestone?#DefenseUpdates #laserweapon #usmilitary