Army laser weapon passes big test, cuts through fog to take down drones!

You heard it folks.. The army now has LASERS than can TAKE DOWN AIRCRAFT.

A new laser weapon Boeing is developing for the U.S. Army cleared a major test by cutting through fog to destroy enemy targets.

The High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD) successfully took out drones and 60mm mortars under sub-optimal conditions during tests in Florida earlier this year, the company announced Sept. 4.

This is massive!

Believe it or not this is actually a big step towards FREEKIN' LASER RIFLES..

Imagine in 20 years when they have condensed this technology to a smaller scale.. Laser bazooka's, Lazer sniper rifles, Lazer Pistols... Lightsabers?

Fog and wind did not detract from its performance, which paves the way for the weapon to be used at sea.

“With capabilities like HEL MD, Boeing is demonstrating that directed energy technologies can augment existing kinetic strike weapons and offer a significant reduction in cost per engagement,” Boeing Directed Energy Systems director Dave DeYoung said in a press release. “With only the cost of diesel fuel, the laser system can fire repeatedly without expending valuable munitions or additional manpower.”

Maybe I'm just getting a bit excited..

Army laser weapon passes big test, cuts through fog to take down drones!

Ad this to the US's other air defenses and sending anything in the air near US forces will no longer be an option.

Lets all dance around and celebrate, we have invented another weapon.

Isn't mankind just brilliant.

End sarcasm.

originally posted by: Watchfull
Lets all dance around and celebrate, we have invented another weapon.

Isn't mankind just brilliant.

End sarcasm.

More precise and technologically advanced weaponry can actually be a GOOD thing.

It means less civilian casualties and less 'collateral' damage.

If you had the choice of taking out a single target with a high powered Laser cleanly and efficiently, or you could bomb the guys entire surrounding area inflicting damage on innocent civilians (Babies, Children, Family, Neighbours)..

Which would you choose?

I don't advocate war in the slightest, you can check my thread history if you don't believe me.

I just think it's cool that after countless films depicting future laser weaponry throughout the years, we are now pretty much living in that preconceived notion of the future. It's an exciting time we live in with Nano technology and Bio mechanics.

Don't you find all this space age stuff rather interesting?

a reply to: TechUnique

Now put it in space, turn it on people and you have the very weapon the military where talking about last year.
Multiple targets tracked and eliminated within seconds. Kinda like the system in Capt. America - WS....

The advantage of lasers is that they don't leave unexploded ordinance all around. No shrapnel, toxic chemicals or fumes.

a reply to: stormcell

Exactly!

Also, no radioactive fallout. .

I would like this deployed against indirect fire.

While I was in Afghanistan this past year we got hit so much with crap Chinese made rockets that in any given week we'd lose countless hours of duty day and mission cancellations.

Lazer Rifles... I don't think they'll be what we've imagined due to the speed of light. If the enemy shoots you with one in the head, you'll be dead before you even see the light!

OP is excited... until he finds himself on the wrong side of the laser.

a reply to: TechUnique

I actually do think laser rifles (at least for "sniper" rifles) are going to be something we see within the next... 20 years. When you think about it, current guns seem primitive. You cause an explosion that propels a little piece of metal or whatever at high speed towards its target and then hope it actually hits it due to various conditions... Wind, distance, aim, user skill, etc etc... If we can shoot planes and missiles out of the sky with lasers, the ability to zap a hole through someone's chest from 5 miles out at literal light speed doesn't seem too far out of the question.

a reply to: trollz

I think we already have directed energy weapons. Someone pointed this out the other day, it's like we're working backwards
but spending billions in "research" for stuff we all ready know, but can't reveal because it's classified.

These will be fitted onto the next generation of US carriers, and other ships that are nuclear powered. They will be able to track and destroy hundreds if not thousands of targets at once.

a megawatt beam would burn through 20 feet of steel in a single second.

www.wired.com...

www.onr.navy.mil...

www.popsci.com...

www.foxnews.com...

Also .. drones ...

www.popsci.com... h-lasers

originally posted by: stormcell
The advantage of lasers is that they don't leave unexploded ordinance all around. No shrapnel, toxic chemicals or fumes.

Which means no evidence to link the attack back to it's origin.

a reply to: Woodcarver

Well when only one military has the tech it's obvious who is doing it.

originally posted by: projectvxn
I would like this deployed against indirect fire.

While I was in Afghanistan this past year we got hit so much with crap Chinese made rockets that in any given week we'd lose countless hours of duty day and mission cancellations.

That's what I think. Limited range for the time being, so it's a point defense weapon at this time. Mortar rounds, rockets, maybe the occasional aircraft that makes its way close.

originally posted by: MrSpad
Ad this to the US's other air defenses and sending anything in the air near US forces will no longer be an option.

except you take mirrors or polish you missiles

or find out laser wavelength and paint with material that reflects that specific range of wavelengths

Missile Shield ?

Shield penetration with better bullets.

it is called arms race

originally posted by: trollz
a reply to: TechUnique

I actually do think laser rifles (at least for "sniper" rifles) are going to be something we see within the next... 20 years.

Laser weapons we already have. The problem with "laser rifles" is you need a big heavy bulky power supply to power the laser, and there is no technology I know of on the horizon to make that power supply light and portable like you'd need for a rifle. Look at the size of this thing, there's no way it will become a rifle within 20 years unless some completely unexpected new power supply is invented:


That uses 10kw which is pretty close to maxing out the 100 Amp service of a home, which is a lot of power, more than we can put in a rifle.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
These will be fitted onto the next generation of US carriers, and other ships that are nuclear powered. They will be able to track and destroy hundreds if not thousands of targets at once.

Yes this is no problem for carriers which already have massive nuclear power plants on board, making them the perfect place to put a power-hungry laser weapon.

originally posted by: BettyHill400

originally posted by: MrSpad
Ad this to the US's other air defenses and sending anything in the air near US forces will no longer be an option.

except you take mirrors or polish you missiles

or find out laser wavelength and paint with material that reflects that specific range of wavelengths

Missile Shield ?

Shield penetration with better bullets.

it is called arms race

Free electron Laser can operate at many different wavelengths. Even reflective material will heat up ... which makes it less reflective, making it hotter, making it less reflective .. until .. boom.

Cool beans...


They've been at it for a while now. Here is a story from 2009

Northrop advance brings era of the laser gun closerNorthrop advance brings era of the laser gun closer

Northrop Grumman Corp. engineers in Redondo Beach have developed an electric laser capable of producing a deadly 100-kilowatt ray of light, a major milestone that is expected to help transform what was once a Buck Rogers space fantasy into reality.

Announced Wednesday, the landmark achievement -- long considered a Holy Grail for weapon developers -- opens the way for development of laser weapons small enough to fit in a fighter jet yet powerful enough to destroy an enemy craft in the blink of an eye.

TRW 1972 Now, the Death Ray?

But other properties of the laser give military strategists powerful incentives to overcome these difficulties. Ordinary bullets and missiles follow arcing trajectories that must be carefully calculated in advance; laser beams are virtually unaffected by the pull of the earth's gravity or by winds, and fly as straight as the proverbial arrow. Traveling at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), they reach their targets literally in a flash; even a computer-controlled ICBM could not maneuver fast enough to get out of their path.

Such sophisticated weaponry is probably at least a decade away, but more down-to-earth military uses of the laser may be much closer at hand. TRW Systems in Redondo Beach, Calif., for instance, is working on a portable chemical laser (which produces a beam from the energy released in the reaction of two or more chemicals) that could be carried into battle by a unit of only three men. Aimed like a rifle, it would silently burn a fatal, quarter-inch-wide hole in the body of an enemy soldier up to five miles away. "Once you've got him in your sights," says a TRW engineer, "you've got him. There are no misses."

TRW

On December 12, 2002, Northrop Grumman acquired the corporation.[1] The defense business was retained by Northrop Grumman. An 80.1% stake (later increased to more than 90%) in TRW Automotive Holdings, including the former LucasVarity Automotive, was spun off to The Blackstone Group, with John C. Plant retaining his position as President and the new company being renamed TRW Automotive Inc. TRW Aeronautical Systems, formerly Lucas Aerospace, was purchased by the American Goodrich Corporation.