Posted on 10/13/2006 11:00:51 AM PDT by Righty_McRight
ST. LOUIS, Oct. 13, 2006 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] has begun flight testing for the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) program and has generated "first light" of ATL's high-energy chemical laser in ground tests, achieving two key milestones in the laser gunship development effort.
During the "low-power" flight tests, which began Oct. 10 and conclude this fall, the ATL ACTD system will find and track ground targets at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. A low-power, solid-state laser will serve as a surrogate for ATL's high-power chemical laser.
To prepare for the tests, the ATL aircraft, a C-130H from the U.S. Air Force 46th Test Wing, was outfitted with flight demonstration hardware at Crestview Aerospace Corp. in Crestview, Fla. The hardware includes the beam director and optical control bench, which will direct the laser beam to its target; weapon system consoles, which will display high-resolution imagery and enable the tracking of targets; and sensors.
Boeing fired the high-energy chemical laser for the first time in ground tests on Sept. 21 in Albuquerque, N.M. -- an achievement known as "first light." Ground tests of the laser will conclude this fall. By 2007, Boeing will install the device on the aircraft and fire it in-flight at mission-representative ground targets to demonstrate the military utility of high energy-lasers. The test team will fire the laser through a rotating turret that extends through an existing 50-inch-diameter hole in the aircraft's belly.
"ATL will transform the battlefield by giving the warfighter a speed-of-light, precision engagement capability that will reduce collateral damage dramatically," said Pat Shanahan, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems. "The start of flight and laser testing shows that Boeing is making solid progress toward making this revolutionary capability a reality."
Boeing is developing ATL for the U.S. Department of Defense through an ACTD program.
ATL will destroy, damage or disable targets with little to no collateral damage, supporting missions on the battlefield and in urban operations. ATL will produce scaleable effects, meaning the weapon operator will be able to select the degree and nature of the damage done to a target by choosing a specific aimpoint and laser shot duration. For example, targeting the fuel tank of a vehicle could result in total destruction of the vehicle, while targeting a tire might result in the vehicle stopping without injury to the driver.
Boeing's Advanced Tactical Laser industry team includes L-3 Communications/Brashear, which made the laser turret, and HYTEC, Inc., which made various structural elements of the weapon system.
I'd like to see an order for 50!!
no, they use frickin' lasers........
.......How do you want your Islamo-Fascists? Regular or Extra Crispy?
.................
Only if we develop the balls to take out everything in sight, and kill all of these cockroaches.
Let's stop playing war with one hand tied around our back!
Because it might offend Russia and other countries. I read an article on here about it now too long ago. Will search for it.
Yeah, you'd think that NASA would've been using the Shuttle's cargo bay to loft mirror retrofit kits up there, instead of those repetetive and insipid "science experiments".
The mirror trick should be possible; I'm pretty sure that I saw it done on Jonny Quest. ;-)
That was my first thought, too!
Imagine if the bad guys are storing IED explosive components in the room.
"WHOOPSIE! Think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?"
Stuned him with a beeber.
And when shooting at people, the operator can select power settings from "redden skin" to "cremate."
We need another Freepathon to raise money to get admin moderator one of thes babies.
"Keyhole" the target and be done with it. We have the weapons in the inventory and in use today.
LASERS, pffft. One sandstorm and you are out of business.
Speaking of fighting a war with one hand tied behind our backs, the main reason that high powered lasers have not already been deployed on the battlefield is that the most common result of illuminating the enemy with a laser is not crispy death, but blindness. Even the beam scatter from taking out a vehicle can blind people not wearing protective eyewear. And blinding the enemy is considered very taboo according to the Gentlemens' Rules of War.
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