Laser weapons are coming: U.S. military leaders gathered in Orlando this week for the annual AirWarfare conference. The military is meeting to discuss their plans for weapons that can cause mass destruction. According to a report, the largest unfunded project that the U.S. Special Operations Command hopes to pass is a C-130 that will be equipped with a very powerful laser weapon.
Lieutenant General Brad Webb, the head of the Air Force Special Operations Command, is one of those who is very optimistic about the project.
“There are a lot of suppliers who are really helping us continue to advance the technology together,” he says.
In 2015, Lt. Gen. Brad Heithold, who was then the head of the Air Force Special Operations Command, told Breaking Defense that he believed “we can put high-energy lasers (offensive and defensive) on AC-130s before the end of this decade.”
Webb says the airborne laser program already tested a defensive laser on the front of a 747 jetliner in 2012.
Since then, according to Webb, things have changed and as technology has improved, the project could become a reality soon.
These weapons have been tested by Boeing and are capable of punching holes in trucks. 
Since there is already a license for the use of the Laser Weapon System, as the prototype defensive weapon is called, the plan is to use it on C-130 aircraft as an anti-ballistic missile defense weapon that could take countermeasures in the event of an attack.
Webb also acknowledged that “At some point there will have to be a political discussion about where and how we can use these particular weapons.
But with the new Trump administration and the White House requesting an increase in the defense budget to $54 billion, it is very likely that the project will find the funding it needs very soon.
