Special operations aircraft to be outfitted with laser weapon.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin

Air Force Special Operations Command expects to equip a directed energy weapon on its new AC-130J Ghostrider gunship by 2020, said its commander.

Officials said the combat aircraft--which will be used for close-air support and air interdiction--is an ideal platform for a laser.

"Most of the senior leadership in the Air Force would argue that the logical step to the advancement of high-energy lasers in the battlefield is to use this AC-130 platform" and then move on to a fighter jet, said Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold, commander of AFSOC. "It makes too much sense. Use me as a way to get where you finally want to go."

The AC-130J--a modified C-130 Hercules transport aircraft built by Lockheed Martin--has more size, weight and power than a fighter, making it an appropriate platform to use initially, he told National Defense.

AFSOC has been working with industry, Defense Department laboratories and think tanks to mature lasers. "We believe technology is ripe to move this forward," he said.

Heithold described lasers as a leap-ahead technology over precision strike munitions. The development of such systems goes hand in hand with the Defense Department's third offset strategy, which aims to maintain the United States' technological edge, he said.

"The next evolution is here and this is where I would argue that I'm at the red zone," he said. AFSOC is working closely with Special Operations Command's acquisition arm to field the technology, he added.

AFSOC anticipates it will have its first laser on board a gunship and in demonstrations by 2020, he said. For now, the command is aiming to equip it on four systems, but that number could be adjusted. "It all depends on where this technology goes. You may find that eventually all AC-I30s have it," he said.

Without giving specific figures, Heithold said adding a laser to the aircraft wouldn't be extremely costly. "If I can get the department on board and a little bit of money in '16--and I mean a little--I can move the ball forward and [if we can] get enough money in '17--about $20 million--and then a little bit in... '18 and '19, we'll field it," he said.

"I don't think it's a lot of money. This isn't a billion dollar" program, he said. The "investment in this capability has already been done. It's been done by industry, the laboratories" and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Bill Lane, AFSOC's chief of strike and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance requirements, said a laser would...