This is US Army’s Short Range Air Defense

YouTube / US Military News

M-SHORAD

The M-SHORAD (Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense) is the Army’s newest addition to its various modernization efforts. It integrates existing guns, missiles, rockets, and sensors onto a Stryker A1, and is designed to defend maneuvering forces against cruise missiles, drones, and other low-altitude airborne threats.

FEATURES

The highly mobile system features a Reconfigurable Integrated Weapons Platform Turret, combining four weapons: a 30mm XM914 automatic cannon, Hellfire missiles, a Stinger missile launcher, and a 7.62mm M240 coaxial machine gun. 

CAPABILITIES

Stingers have a range of three miles and use a dual-infrared ultraviolet seeker to down enemy aircraft, while the Hellfires have a range of five miles and have a shape-charged warhead. The 30mm gun can also engage more distant targets with its air-bursting shells that can be discharged at three rounds per second. 

DE M-SHORAD

If that’s not cool enough for you, then take a look at the Direct Energy M-SHORAD. This proposed system has a 50-kilowatt laser weapon system attached to a Stryker. 

LASERS IN ACTION

The laser is fired off the batteries and comes out of a roof-mounted beam director. 

However, unlike Star Wars, the laser doesn’t make any sound nor is it visible to the naked eye. What a shame!