Military Laser Brings 'star Wars' Reality Closer

[DYABLO 0]

Military laser brings 'Star Wars' reality closer

 

A U.S. Pentagon invention could make air combat resemble a battle scene from the movie '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 Defense System (HELLADS), being designed by the Pentagon's central research and development agency, will weigh just 750 kg (1,650 lb) 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 on Wednesday.

 

But the Pentagon's Defense 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 Web site.

 

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 15-kW version by the end of the year.

 

If everything goes according to plan, an even more powerful weapon producing a 150-kW beam and capable of knocking down a missile will be ready by 2007 for fitting onto aircraft.

Notice from cmatcmextra:

Quote tags added. Copied from http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

Edited September 1, 2005 by cmatcmextra (see edit history)

[SystemWisdom 0]

Haha! That's pretty neat!! But wouldn't it be hard to target a missile in flight? Especially when on a moving plane.. The laser might serve a more useful purpose targetting missile still attached to enemy aircraft! That way, we can use there own missiles against them, and save ours!! Target and destroy a missile attached to the wing of an enemy fighter, and bye-bye enemy fighter!! lol(When I first read the topic title, I thought maybe they had come close to making a laser light saber! that woulda been neat!)

[mendezgarcia 0]

Haha! That's pretty neat!!  But wouldn't it be hard to target a missile in flight? Especially when on a moving plane.. 

No, it's not (I mean, it's hard to hit the plane, the problem is to take it down). I saw videos - Northrop Grumman's Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) shooting down mortar rounds, rockets and etc.
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

It's impressive. You can fry missiles because they explode "easily", it would be a little harder to hit a plane.

The laser might serve a more useful purpose targetting missile still attached to enemy aircraft!  That way, we can use there own missiles against them, and save ours!!  Target and destroy a missile attached to the wing of an enemy fighter, and bye-bye enemy fighter!!  lol

This is too "Hollywoodian"
You may not know, but todays most advanced laser weapons belong to China. For example, some targeting system used by the Iraqis were supplied by China. There is also a Chinese tank (Type98) that will shoot a laser on enemy tanks aming at it; which blinds the enemy, laser cannons, and other laser weapons.

[thablkpanda 0]

This is VERY Cool, I think i heard about it on the news or something though.Even cooler implementations are on their way (Light-sabers would be SO COOL, if we don't sever our own limbs by accident.)Panda

[kevlar557 0]

This would be very cool if it was implimented within the next decade. I like the idea of terrorists trying to bomb the U.S. with some kind of dirty missile like they have in the movies, and it gets shot down by a laser pointer Anyway, like everyone else has said, this will be the starting point for a whole bunch of laser implimentations.

[floresid 0]

I saw this on Discovery or something. They were planning on building a 747 size aircraft w/ on in it. The cone of the plane would have the focusing mirror attached, and the internals would spread throughout the plane. They figured it would work great for countries w/ potential WMD's. We could patrol their air space w/ a few of these, and if they launched, we could shoot them down from a couple of hundred miles away. Essentially making unstable (more like uncontrollable) countries like N. Korea, and their Nuclear arsenal less of a threat.

[believer 0]

This would be very cool if it was implimented within the next decade. I like the  idea of terrorists trying to bomb the U.S. with some kind of dirty missile like they have in the movies, and it gets shot down by a laser pointer Anyway, like everyone else has said, this will be the starting point for a whole bunch of laser implimentations.

199929[/snapback]

yeah that would be great but what if the terrorists are the ones who have the lasers, we cannot count that out with the fundings these people are getting - scary isn't it?

[MystiK1337 0]

Speaking of Northrop Grumman, I live nearby one of their main research facilitites. I didnt even know about it until a few years ago.

[tdktank59 0]

Yeah lol... targeting a movie object it hard unless the lazer its self has a math equation runnin with how fast the missle is moving and what direction so that the lazer is sent out before the rocket/missle reaches that point...thats really t he only way unelss the missle was dead in front of them...

[floresid 0]

These unit could also work directly w/ a satellite link that would inable gps tracking and coordinating shots fired. Plus the scud missiles used in Iraq in the past had programs built into them to calculate trajectory and speed. They weren't 100% effective initially but I think they've improved the software since they were initally introduced in the initial Golf War.

[tuddy 0]

Now time to shine Military style. Has anyone really noticed the countries producing these weapons those? .. North Korea, China, US? Don't you think with a laser of that calliba, it would not be allowed under U.N international laws of WMD? If you cannot have Necular Weapons, then why can we have lasers that can easily seach and destroy this weapons from miles away? On another not, also from Australian Air Force knowledge, technology these days would be no worries about trying to fly a laser and try and source your enermy down. The main forcus for a laser to be fitted to an aircraft, hightens the risk of flying in the military. Being a pilot you need great aircraft control, and your aircraft is unstable after being shot in the main body, imagine someone shooting at your 'laser', that with one shot could poitonally blow up mid air.Trust me on this, you won't be seeing any of this happen besides testing for at least another 10 years. Let alone find pilots stupid enough to volunteer to try, so once again i see the U.S Air Force providing more pilots for dangerous missons not needed.

[frederick.ding 0]

[edit: removed content]

Edited January 16, 2011 by frederick.ding (see edit history)

[DreamCore 0]

Yea gree it does, but I think that it was unneceserly to build it... Just spending money for war. B)The life is getting more close to star wars out there.

[FLaKes 0]

Hhahaha. It would be really funny with all those nations that are sort of starving but prefer to invest in nuclear weapons. Imagine them getting ready to threat the world or something and this technology blowing up their millions or resources and research in the air. About hitting the missile I think that computers will take care of that easily.

[freesoul 0]

What next? Light sabres. I'm a big Star Wars fan and was thinking of light sabres when I saw this Topic. Nice info though.