Chinese military hints at plans for airborne laser attack weapon
- People’s Liberation Army’s equipment procurement website invites bids from would-be suppliers
- Such a weapon could be used to take down missiles or hostile aircraft, state tabloid Global Times says
Notices titled “procurement plan for airborne laser attack pod” and “price inquiry on procurement plan for controlling software module of laser attack platform” were published on Saturday on weain.mil.cn, the official weapons and equipment procurement website of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Marked confidential, the notices invited bids from potential suppliers.
Although the detailed requirements for such equipment are unknown, it is likely to be a new type of tactical assault weapon, rather than laser guidance devices for missiles, which are already widely in use. The notice titles supported this idea, said Global Times, the nationalist tabloid published under the auspices of Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily.
Global Times reported that this type of airborne laser weapon could be a tool for aerial interception to take down incoming missiles or shoot down hostile aircraft in a dogfight.
On Monday, a post from the Weibo account of Weihutang, a military affairs programme screened by state broadcaster China Central Television, stated that China had already developed a prototype for an airborne laser weapon, citing a publicly available academic thesis.
The paper, “Study on Energy Storage and Power Supply of Airborne Laser Weapon”, was by state-owned AVIC Manufacturing Technology Institute and the Military Resident Representative Bureau of Special Equipment of PLA Rocket Force in Shenyang.