MQ-20 Avenger Depicted with Laser Weapon in its Nose

• General Atomics recently showed what it says is a rendering of an MQ-20 Avenger drone armed with a laser directed energy weapon. The laser beam is depicted projecting through a fully rotating nose cone turret fitted in place of its normal nose section.

The company says this is a purely conceptual design, but it reflects a broader exploration of potential laser armament for uncrewed aircraft across its portfolio, including members of the highly modular Gambit family – and that it could be closer to becoming an operational reality than one might expect.

The depiction of the laser-armed Avenger was seen in a brief video at General Atomics’ booth at the Association of the U.S. Army’s (AUSA) main annual convention last week. Naval News‘ Carter Johnston spotted the interesting clip and was kind enough to share a picture he grabbed of it, seen at the top of this story and in the social media post below. Though said to be a render, whether the imagery may have been composited, even in part, from real pictures is unclear.

In broad strokes, laser directed energy weapons mounted on aircraft, as well as ground-based platforms and ships, offer the promise of fast-as-light precision engagements against various types of targets in offensive and defensive contexts. There is also the benefit of largely unconstrained magazine depth, as long as there is sufficient power and cooling capacity. In addition, laser weapons are silent, and their beams are often not visible to the naked eye, which could help enable covert attacks, or otherwise contribute to chaos and confusion among enemy forces, depending on the exact engagement scenario. There are also limitations to laser weapons, especially due to power limitations and environmental factors, which you can read more about here.

As noted, the rendering shows an Avenger with a completely new nose section, the core body of which rotates laterally and has an aperture through which the laser is projected. There is also a ‘ball’ type sensor turret, which are typically fitted with a combination of electro-optical and infrared cameras, as well as laser rangefinders and/or designators, at the very tip of the nose. Avengers have been seen over the years with similar sensor balls under their noses as a standard feature. Avenger is something of a curiosity itself, with the most significant operator to date understood to be the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Publicly, the drones, which have some low observable (stealthy) features, are mostly widely seen used as experimental testbeds.

“What visitors saw at AUSA was a conceptual render and short animation of an MQ-20 Avenger with a high-energy laser (HEL) system. Both of those are existing General Atomics products, and a natural fit for us to use when describing the concept — instead of any specific government program or contract,” C. Mark Brinkley, a spokesperson for General Atomics, told TWZ when asked for more details. “The display was meant to simply convey that General Atomics continues to lead on research and development of both combat laser systems and uncrewed combat air vehicles (UCAVs). We are certainly exploring how those products could be combined to provide a variety of new opportunities for warfighters, including counter-UAS [counter-uncrewed aerial systems] and other uses.”

“I wouldn’t read too much into the actual visuals of the Avenger and laser depicted in that render,” he added. “A final version could take many forms — as a podded system on an MQ-9B or Gray Eagle STOL, for instance, or as an integrated weapon on our Gambit family of combat jets. The bottom line is that General Atomics continues to invest our own money into advancing UCAVs and lasers, both individually and as integrated systems. We remain excited about the future of that work.”

Source: The War Zone