The project didn't go according to plan.
Since laser weapons are no longer science-fiction, and advanced military powers to varying degrees either already have systems in service or are preparing to adopt them, it is not surprising that the use of combat lasers will expand over time. So far, the main problem is the mass, power of laser systems and how to impart this power to them, especially when it comes to systems placed on board, albeit large, but still aircraft, the energy capabilities of which are very limited.
In the United States, one of the options for introducing laser weapons was to be the corresponding AHEL installation (Airborne High Energy Laser, an airborne high-power laser installation), located on board the AC-130J fire support aircraft. But today, The War Zone, citing the US Air Force Special Operations Command, announced that this project has been cancelled.
Judging by the context, the cancellation is at least temporary: during testing of the AHEL system, the US Air Force encountered technical problems that led to a delay in integrating the system onto the AC-130J aircraft. Let us recall that the work on AHEL is carried out by the Lockheed Martin corporation, one of the “big four” companies of the American military-industrial complex. Lockheed Martin received a contract for the implementation of a high-power air-launched combat laser in 2019.
Today, at least four states either have laser weapons or are developing and testing them. In Russia, however, in unknown quantities so far, there is a laser complex “Peresvet”, which is intended for air defense. In Israel, the Iron Beam complex is used for similar purposes; in Britain, testing of the DragonFire laser air defense system continues. As we can see, the names of laser systems in different countries to one degree or another reflect the “beam” component of this type of weapon based on the so-called new physical principles (in fact, of course, the physical principles are not new, but simply not previously used in weapons systems).