Rheinmetall has successfully tested its new 50kW high-energy
weapon technology demonstrator by engaging and destroying two UAVs from a
distance of two kilometres.
The test
was conducted at Rheinmetall’s Ochsenboden Proving Groud (EZO) in Switzerland,
in snowy conditions and blinding sunlight, and was initially supposed to show
the increase in efficiency of the 50kW HEL weapon compared with the 10kW
version demonstrated last year. A five-fold increase in laser power was
available for the individual scenarios, which included Air Defence, Counter
Rocket, Artillery, Mortar/C-RAM, and Asymmetric Warfare operations.