After years of testing out a low-energy Stryker-mounted directed energy system, the Army is formally pushing for a combat-ready laser weapon to blast enemy drones and ordnance out of the sky in the next four years.The Army is officially accelerating the prototyping and fielding of four Stryker vehicles outfitted with 50 kW-class laser weapons by fiscal year 2022, the service announced on July 26, a ten-fold increase over the 5 kW-class system that artillery soldiers have been testing in Germany since early 2018.The new laser prototype, know as the Multi-Mission High Energy Laser (MMHEL), is "intended to protect maneuvering Brigade Combat Teams from unmanned aerial systems (UAS), rotary- wing aircraft, and rockets, artillery and mortar (RAM)" as part of the Army's ongoing development of its Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) capabilities, the service said.