Unmanned aerial vehicles used for surveillance of terrorists, insurgents, track, and even hunt down and kill Al-Qaeda hiding in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Now, the Pentagon research and development arm is looking for ways to add high-powered lasers for unmanned aerial vehicles, which became one of the most talked-about technologies in the military past U.S. military operations.

Notification to put last week by the Ministry of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon unit responsible for the development of technology is far from well known as DARPA, weapons manufacturers asked for proposals for the development of pulsed fiber lasers, which will be placed on high-flying drones. Lasers should be able to put at least 10 megajoules of energy per pulse at 24 kHz repetition rate, in accordance with the announcement. This is not an easy task, considering that the entire system must weigh no more than 22 pounds, so it could fit on the buzz.

Over the last decade, unmanned aerial vehicles were mainly on reconnaissance missions to be an integral part of the struggle. Putting a powerful laser on these aircraft will undoubtedly expand the role of unmanned aerial vehicles in the new missions.

This is not quite War of the Worlds-style airplane shooting death beams on the ground, however. “This system should have a number of tasks, from distant 3D display and a laser radar, infrared countermeasures, and free space optical communications,” said a spokeswoman for DARPA area.

Laser Subsurface Engraving Machine