Posted on 03/11/2012 10:30:14 PM PDT by U-238
DARPA is unveiling a portable laser weapons system, HELLADS, which seems like something out of a sci-fi movie. The new laser application, created by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems with a custom power system from Saft Batteries, will help change the way the American military fights future wars. Current military laser systems are bulky contraptions which are mainly the size of a passenger jet, while the proposed DARPA weapon can fit on the back of a flatbed truck. The 150-kilowatt, solid state laser weapon is strong enough to take down drones or other aerial targets; a prototype is expected to be available by the end of 2012.
HELLADS stands for High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System. Since laser beams work at the speed of light, it's effectively impossible for aerial targets to dodge them. The use of laser beams against land targets is complicated by line-of-sight issues, but the miniaturization of laser technology makes them perfect for use against aerial and naval targets. The demonstration laser for DARPA will be the first 150-kilowatt laser weapon of its kind. DARPA plans to use the completed prototypes against targets at White Sands Missile Range in early 2013--this will include ground testing against rockets, mortars, and surface-to-air missiles
(Excerpt) Read more at fastcompany.com ...
Great. When has Obama scheduled the first shipment to Iran?
Why specifically drones?
Never mind
Maybe the amount of power the laser uses.
I guess its hard to Lob a laser over the horizon
Probably because drones will eventually have the ability to fly faster and will be more agile than manned jets, so they would need something better than a missile to hit them.
If you use a mirror.
All I know is that some punk kid hit me in the eye with a cheapass laser on a toy gun and it hurt like hell for hours
Lasers can do severe eye damage.The FDA issued a warning after two anecdotal reports it received of eye injury from laser pointers
That will never happen
A manned craft is infinity better than a remotely controlled craft unless you can program it for a specific route at high speed ala a cruise missile
It hurt like hell
I suppose you could build a second plane that carried a mirror that had a system that guided the laser to the mirror and using GPS to know the first two points you could use another source to locate the target and work out a firing solution for the mirror.
I would not want to be the middleman with the mirror.
I wouldn’t say never.
I know a drone will never outthink a man, in terms of creativeness. But you don’t to be that creative, if you have billions of cycles per second and has a reaction time of thousandths of a second.
Hard to beat that.
I guess thats what drones are for LOL
Understood.
150-kilowatt High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System, please.
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