Anti-aircraft energy laser unveiled

US firm Raytheon unveils its new anti-aircraft laser at the Farnborough Airshow in Hampshire, releasing a video of it shooting down an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at the US Navy test range on San Nicolas Island off the coast of California.

Raytheon said "the solid state fibre laser produces a 50 kilowatt beam and can be used against UAV, mortar, rockets and small surface ships.
We've tied this into Phalanx, the US Navy's anti-missile defence system that links a multiple barrelled 20mm Gatling gun to a radar guidance mechanism.
This system is already installed in many ships, both in the US and other Nato nations, such as the Royal Navy.It functions as the last line of defence, so if you can fit a laser onto it, you have a longer reach and an unlimited magazine, cause it keeps on throwing out photons,"


Link to video!

Link to more information




[edit on 19-7-2010 by Pockets]

Hey that was interesting!

It looked to me as though the laser had to be focused on the drone for quite a few seconds for it to be destroyed. A bit of a drawback!

How far away must they be from a higher intensity beam weapon to this one?

Not far i bet. And could you imagine the potential?

Excellent Video, I saw this this morning and thought it was the coolest thing, and I bet that what we are seeing is just the tip of the iceberg as to what they can really do.

I wonder how far this can be effectively used like that?

Maybe I should of put this in the UFO section or just added UFO to the title....seems to of done wonders to this phage's thread

reply to post by Pockets

Yeah, I noticed that other thread popping up.

I'd feel a bit hard done by if i were you.

reply to post by Silver Star


Well this was the 1st one I think...I don't feel hard done by...but aren't there rules about multi posts....the "this is not a ufo" one was on the top threads all of yesterday