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| Pentagon invents airborne laser |
| 2005-08-24 |
| A US Pentagon invention could make air combat resemble a battle scene from Star Wars, with a laser so small it can fit on a fighter jet, yet powerful enough to knock down an enemy missile in flight. The High Energy Laser Area Defence System (HELLADS), being designed by the Pentagon's central research and development agency, will weigh just 750kg and measures the size of a large fridge. To date, such lasers have been so bulky because of the need for huge cooling systems to stop them overheating, that they had to be fitted to large aircraft such as jumbo jets, New Scientist magazine reported today. But the Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency reckons it has solved the problem by merging liquid and solid state lasers to cut the size and weight by "an order of magnitude", according to its website. Liquid lasers can fire a continuous beam but need large cooling systems, while solid state laser beams are more intense but have to be fired in pulses to stop them overheating. "We've combined the high energy density of the solid state laser with the thermal management of the liquid laser," New Scientist quoted project manager Don Woodbury as saying. Dubbed the "HEL weapon" by its developers, a prototype capable of firing a mild one kilowatt (kW) beam has already been produced and there are plans to build a stronger 15kW version by the end of the year. If everything goes according to plan, an even more powerful weapon producing a 150kW beam and capable of knocking down a missile will be ready by 2007 for fitting onto aircraft. |
| Posted by:Captain America |
| #11 Gawd just think i could heat my top ramen in no time. /immna thrw out thater old mikrowav ovrn. |
| Posted by: Red Dog 2005-08-24 22:19 |
| #10 THEL is good when someone is lobbing projectiles at you. If you have it handy. However, if you have aircraft that can take out most of the projectiles flying from "their side" towards "our side", it is an awful lot more convenient. In addition, with a little counter battery computation, an airborne platform could not only take out say, a Qassam rocket, but then immediately take out the rocket launcher *and* its firing team, far faster than even counter battery fire. Other applications flood the imagination. Taking out AA radar almost as soon as it's activated, so you don't waste a HARM on some cheap dish. Ship hunting, even small boats, like Zodiacs. Any concentrations of enemy imflammable items, even of low value, like tents, POL, wood, decoys. Starting fires in occupied woodlines or grassy fields. Even something seemingly silly, like melting every left tire in a long convoy of vehicles, without harming anyone inside, can be very useful at times. Etc. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-08-24 21:15 |
| #9 As long as it's not cloudy/foggy. Lasers are cool, but like Laser Guided weapons, they work best in clear air. I don't believe THEL is a fieldable system. The chemicals it uses are NASTY. Rather it's a development system to check out all the non-lasing componants (computer, radar, fire control etc) until a suitable 100kw mobile laser can be found. |
| Posted by: Dave 2005-08-24 21:10 |
| #8 but can they mount it on a Shark? Not some ill-tempered sea bass, but sharks! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-08-24 21:01 |
| #7 Sweet! An laser anti-missile system. Life is good. |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2005-08-24 20:39 |
| #6 Did we use THEL during the Iraq 2003 invasion, with missles lobbed into Kuwait? |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-08-24 20:34 |
| #5 If they would have named the weapon platform "Crossbow" it would have been just like the movie 'Real Genius'. |
| Posted by: Scott R. 2005-08-24 20:30 |
| #4 HELLADS...That is positively James Bondian. I love it. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2005-08-24 20:00 |
| #3 Also, while lasers have some strong advantages, they are not without some disadvantages as well. The power to weight ratio we can put in any mobile platform right now requires a certain amount of dwell time on target. The moving target attempts to outrun the beam, the laser attempts to stay locked on the moving target .... |
| Posted by: lotp 2005-08-24 19:52 |
| #2 Moose, for that we have THEL. |
| Posted by: lotp 2005-08-24 19:46 |
| #1 I knew it! I knew there had to be a reason that the US was running away fast from manned fighter aircraft. There is no such thing as an aircraft or a2a missile that can outrun a laser. Now the big question is: can they be used against ground launched missiles, SAMs, ground targets, or even things like artillery rounds, rockets and mortar rounds? |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-08-24 19:43 |