Army's first laser battalion

via Task & Purpose.

The Defense Department expects to stand up its first battalion of Stryker vehicles outfitted with high-powered laser weapons by sometime next year, Army officials say.

“Expect to have the first battalion fielded in 2021 with four battalions by 2023,” U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command chief Lt. Gen. Dan Karbler told the audience at the virtual Space Missile Defense symposium on Tuesday

The so-called "laser battalion," as Defense One described it, would eventually deploy the new 50 kw Directed Energy-Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense (DE-MSHORAD) Stryker that the Army is working to field by 2022, a ten-fold power increase over the 5 kw-class system that artillery soldiers have been testing in Germany since early 2018.
Defense contractors Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are currently competing to manufacture the new laser system, with plans for a "shoot off" between the two prototypes at Fort Sill in Oklahoma sometime in May 2021, according to Breaking Defense.

A platoon of four laser Strykers prototypes will end up in the hands of an actual combat unit sometime in 2022, according to Breaking Defense, with the laser system integrated into the vehicles' existing hardware as soon as this December.

Wow.  The US Army is on it's SHIT!  I love the moves they're making.  Evolving the force instead of seeking radical transformation.

They're doing it right!