China's effort to develop high-energy battlefield lasers to shoot down enemy aircraft and missiles seems well behind that of the United States.

Since making a big publicity splash in Chinese state-owned media in 2015, not much has been revealed about Low Altitude Guard II (LAG II), being evaluated by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to shoot down American aerial drones.

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State-owned media first extensively covered the development of LAG II in late 2015. The weapon made its first public appearance in Sept. 2016 at the Africa Aerospace and Defense 2016 tradeshow in South Africa. What China's revealed about this weapon hasn't changed much in the course of a year, however.

China claims LAG-II is the most powerful laser weapon known to exist, apart from secret weapons in development elsewhere. LAG II, which fires a 30 kilowatt laser beam, was built by the Chinese Academy of Physics Engineering and Jiuyuan High Tech Equipment Corporation.

A road mobile weapon, LAG II is mounted on wheeled trailer towed by a truck. The trailer carries LAG II, which is enclosed in a protective turret when on the move, and its power system. Medium-sized trucks or 6x6 armored personnel carriers can be used to tow this weapon.

LAG II uses an electro-optical sensor to acquire and track targets autonomously before destroying them on command from its human operators inside a command vehicle. Its predecessor, LAG I, was a stationary laser weapon used mostly for field trials.

The electro-optical guidance system on LAG-II can also theoretically be used to shoot down larger aircraft, but a more advanced system will be required to destroy much larger weapons such as missiles or rockets.

State-owned media said LAG II can be upgraded with datalinks to allow it to engage high-speed targets like rocket artillery. Currently, the laser can only engage slower targets like small unmanned aerial vehicles and mini-drones at a maximum range of only 4 km.

China claims LAG II is comparable to the Laser Weapons System (LaWS) installed on the U.S. Navy warship, USS Ponce (AFSB(I)-15), an Austin-class amphibious transport dock. The Ponce is a testbed for the Navy's first shipborne laser with an output ranging from 15-50 kW used for shooting down aerial drones and engaging small enemy boats.

The U.S. Air Force will soon test lasers mounted aboard its aircraft while the U.S. Army has already tested powerful battlefield lasers. The army will soon test lasers with an output of 120 kW.

Tagschina, batlefield laser, ow Altitude Guard II, LAG II, 30 kilowatt laser beam, Laser Weapons System (LaWS), USS Ponce