Is Stavatti Developing Directed Energy Weapons?
Stavatti is not developing directed energy weapon at this time. Furthermore, with respect to the TIS-1, there is no specific or published DoD RFI or RFP for a man-portable directed energy weapon. It is the opinion of Stavatti leadership that battlefield tactical directed energy weapons will be developed by 2025, fielded in the 2030-2040 timeframe, and that the gas dynamic laser approach is one of the more efficient mechanisms to realize such a weapon. With respect to airborne directed energy weapons, on August 30th, 2009, a USAF C-130H armed with a high-power chemical laser destroyed an unoccupied stationary vehicle from altitude: the laser beam’s energy being the lethal mechanism that destroyed the vehicle. Greg Hyslop, Vice President and General Manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems was quoted afterwards stating, “This milestone demonstrates that directed energy weapon systems will transform the battle space and save lives by giving warfighter a speed-of-light, ultra-precision en
