Last month at the White Sands Missile Range, Boeing demonstrated their new laser mounted Avenger combat vehicle by shooting down a small UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle). The Laser Avenger uses an advanced targeting system to track the tiny aircraft and can fire its laser beam without revealing its position. During its test, the Laser Avenger became the first combat vehicle to destroy a UAV using laser technology, by destroying three drones “flying against a complex background of mountains and desert.”

From boeing.com

"Small UAVs armed with explosives or equipped with surveillance sensors are a growing threat on the battlefield," said Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Directed Energy Systems. "Laser Avenger, unlike a conventional weapon, can fire its laser beam without creating missile exhaust or gun flashes that would reveal its position. As a result, Laser Avenger can neutralize these UAV threats while keeping our troops safe."

“Laser Avenger integrates a directed energy weapon together with the kinetic weapons on the proven Avenger air defense system developed by Boeing Combat Systems in Huntsville, Ala. It is a Boeing-funded initiative to demonstrate that directed energy weapons are maturing and are relevant to today's battlefield.”

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