Posted on 12/22/2013 7:30:54 AM PST by shove_it
The Army has successfully tested a futuristic laser weapon capable of shooting football-sized mortar rounds and unmanned drones out of the sky. The truck-mounted weapon, known as the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD) is still about a decade away from becoming an operational part of the Army's arsenal, but gives a hint at what a weapon of the future could look like.
The Army tested its HEL MD laser at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico for nearly six weeks starting in mid-November. The device was equipped with a 10-kilowatt solid state laser and a radar system mounted atop a heavy truck.
During the tests a "quarter-sized" invisible laser beam successfully targeted and destroyed more than 90 incoming mortar rounds and six to seven unmanned drones. Terry Bauer, the project manager for the laser program, said the test results were "above and beyond" what they had expected going into the testing. "We had no thoughts that this 10-kilowatt would be as successful n doing that as it has been. " ...
So far the Army's laser testing program has cost about $13 million a year since it began in 2011. But over the long term it looks like a good deal as the cost of taking out each mortar round is estimated to be the price of a cup of diesel fuel.
(Excerpt) Read more at gma.yahoo.com ...
Should be an effective riot control tool.Be good on the southern border when equipped with motion and heat sensors.
This seems incredibly inexpensive. Less than an 0bama vacation.
Looks to me like the photographer cut off most of the laser on top.
lets hold up till the POSOTUS is out of office before we give him any new weapons....
As long as they can miniaturize it down to the point they can put those sharks everything is good!
Remember when the Serbs succeeded in shooting down our stealth bomber with a microwave oven during Clinton’s Wag the Dog War on Christians?
Wonder if that would work on drones.....
Am I the only one who thinks that is ridiculously cheap?
Not exactly.
The humpable "return to sender" version sounds good.
That ‘Stealth Bomber’ (the F-117) was almost 20 years old when that happened. Notice how the Chinese and Russians still haven’t been able to replicate our technology, even a decade later? Now with drones, stealth tech may not even matter.
And what happens when these lasers are turned on protesting crowds of hungry people because of hyperinflation?
When is a truck that size ever around mortar fire?
If you can get that in close enough to be useful, you can get artillery in to blast the mortar source.
Israel is one of the few practical applications.
There is a lot more to that story than just using “creative” means.
The one thing I’ll say is this; the F117’s mission planning was controlled and authorized by....NATO.
Does it work against hypersonic anti-carrier missiles?
Can they put it on frikkin' sharks' heads?
Put enough energy on anything and it’ll blow
Sarcasm. . .right? One never knows these days. . .
“Does it work against hypersonic anti-carrier missiles?”
Compared to the speed of light,those missiles may as well be standing in one place.
GIVES US THE advantage in Korea-a good place to (re)start a war and END it.
No ... two years, less than $40 million, and they have functioning hardware. That's what a taxpayer wants.
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