U.S. Army tests its first high-energy laser weapon for short-range air defense

It is about time. Israel is ahead (see e.g. my blog here)!

"The U.S. Army is just a few small steps away from fielding its first combat-ready, high-powered laser weapon. Over the summer, such a weapon was mounted on a Stryker military vehicle and used in tests at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in a “combat shoot-off” against a series of possible combat scenarios. The first platoon of four laser-mounted Strykers is expected to join the ranks of the army in early 2022. ...
a 50-kilowatt laser weapon to the field in order to demonstrate short-range air defense (SHORAD) against a series of simulated threats and combat scenarios. These included drones, rockets, artillery, and mortar targets. ...
Designing a laser that is powerful enough to take out a mortar shell from a mile away is a huge engineering challenge. The way it is done is through a technique known as Spectral Beam Combination, whereby multiple outputs of beams are combined into a single high-power beam rather than using a single individual fiber laser. ..."

U.S. Army tests its first high-energy laser weapon The high-power laser weapon is meant to be deployed against drones, as well as rockets, artillery, and mortars.