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The Army is tripling the power of one of its vehicle-mounted laser systems
Task and Purpose ^ | 8 May 2020 | JARED KELLER

Posted on 05/08/2020 10:42:19 AM PDT by BeauBo

The Army is working overtime to ramp up to output of one of its next-generation vehicle-mounted laser weapon systems.

Defense contractor Dynetics is currently working to increase the power of the 100 kilowatt High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstrator (HEL-TVD) to roughly 300 kw, roughly the output needed to defeat an incoming cruise missile, the company announced on Friday.

Initiated in 2017, the HEL-TVD program sought to develop and mount a 100 kw laser on an existing Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) truck to provide a counter rocket, artillery, and mortar (C-RAM) capability...

In its announcement, Dynetics noted it had formally transitioned from the HEL-TVD program to what's called the Indirect Fires Protection Capability – High Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL) effort, which is designed to deliver four prototype laser weapons to a platoon by fiscal year 2024...

The ramp-up is big news not just for the Army, but other laser weapons across the U.S. armed forces which are looking to the HEL-TVD prototyping efforts to inform their own directed energy capabilities.

"Under the new directed energy strategy, the Army is leveraging progress made in that effort in order to merge the HEL-TVD with similar technologies in development by the Navy and the Office of the Secretary of Defense," the service said in August 2019, adding that this partnership "will allow the services to achieve a higher power system ... that can protect sites from RAM and [unmanned aerial systems] as well as more stressing threats."...

"Even if you take all the other elements of a laser weapon and have them be perfect" – the targeting, the cooling, the beam control — "we still don't have enough power," as Frank Peterkin, a senior scientist at the Office of Naval Research, put it in a recent CRS report.

(Excerpt) Read more at taskandpurpose.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: cruisemissile; heltvd; ifpchel
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To: BeauBo
Some other interesting pieces on the site:

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This could be the Army's next light tank of choice
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41 posted on 05/08/2020 1:58:57 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Leaning Right
"They don’t. Whenever I demonstrated a laser to a class, I would sprinkle chalk dust along the path of the laser to make it visible.

I have written many angry and complaining letters to the Star Trek people in that regard. So far, no response.

I'm old enough to remember when there were still people saying that "color" movies would never replace "colorless" movies... Then they said the same thing about "colorless" TV...
{:-)

42 posted on 05/08/2020 3:01:12 PM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is Sam Adams now that we desperately need him)
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To: Bommer

Re: 5:

That’s fake - was done with mirrors.


43 posted on 05/08/2020 3:04:34 PM PDT by Fury
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To: bewildered
WE watched all the amazing light patterns it made on the wall to a Joe Walsh CD for hours.

Did it tear out the walls?
Did it have accountants pay for it all?
Did it show clues at the scene of the crime?
Did it do 185?
Or did it just get a limo and ride in the back?
Did it lock the doors in case it's attacked?
If you leave a message, did it call?
Did go to parties until four?
Could it find the door?

44 posted on 05/08/2020 4:21:52 PM PDT by nicollo (I said no!)
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To: Candor7

If you have diffuser optics across the entire spectrum, you can’t see through them.


45 posted on 05/08/2020 9:22:05 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: dp0622

Laser beams are not visible unless there are quite a lot of particulates in the path of the beam that are reflecting or refracting the light. You can see this yourself with a cheap laser pointer and a bathroom fogged with steam; so no, real lasers don’t look like Star Wars or Star Trek in real life. Things that DO look like SW/ST weapons in real life - particle beams and hypervelocity weapons (railguns, among other things). If we ever get plasma weapons working, they will look pretty much like they are depicted in Hollywood.


46 posted on 05/08/2020 9:26:25 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Quality_Not_Quantity

Correct, that’s how it works.


47 posted on 05/08/2020 9:29:55 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Candor7

High resolution camera system with a relay to VR goggle system, would be capable of protecting a users eyes from direct exposure. The camera hardware is still vulnerable.

Possibly a cold plasma sheath absorbent to the weapons operating frequency might offer a protective dispersion effect for an optics system. A good spot to begin to dig for an answer.


48 posted on 05/09/2020 1:29:30 PM PDT by Ozark Tom
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To: Ozark Tom

I agree.

Someone could actually develop a protective helmet for troops who are near the source and who ma be victims of laser bounce from reflective objects and water.Such a device should likely have a hardened polished mirror surface.


49 posted on 05/09/2020 1:34:55 PM PDT by Candor7 (Obama fascism:)
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To: Leaning Right

Laser operating outside the visible spectrum? Collimated laser light is so tightly focused that dispersion is required to reveal. Lecture pointers are visible spectrum lasers.


50 posted on 05/09/2020 1:39:43 PM PDT by Ozark Tom
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To: Sirius Lee

S.H.A.D.O.— Gerry Anderson?


51 posted on 05/09/2020 1:56:59 PM PDT by Ozark Tom
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To: PIF

Everything developed for the Railgun projectile could be applied to overcome the deficiencies of the Combustion Light Gas Gun, the forerunner project for extended range Naval bombardment which used a purely ballistic round.

The CLGG was successively prototyped three size ranges, 14mm, 45mm, to culminate at 155 mm for 200 nm. range, with 2.5 km sec. velocity at this larger size.


52 posted on 05/09/2020 2:11:12 PM PDT by Ozark Tom
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