Posted on 09/23/2015 12:17:28 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., or GA-ASI, the San Diego-based company that makes the Predator and Reaper drones, is undertaking a privately funded study to integrate a 150-kilowatt solid-state laser onto its Avenger (née Predator-C) drone. If the company succeeds, a drone with a high-energy laser will be a reality at some point in 2017, company executives told Defense One.
“We’re funded right now to develop a laser module compatible with the aircraft and study putting it on the Avenger,” Michael Perry, Vice President for Mission Systems at GA-ASI, told Defense One. “We hope to be funded to do that,” he said.
The company is far better known for its MQ-1s and MQ-9s — the backbones of the Pentagon’s drone strike force — than for its work with lasers. But in June, the company delivered a 150-kilowatt liquid laser to the Pentagon for extensive testing at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. For comparison, the 30 kw laser (output) currently on the Ponce in the Persian Gulf has more than enough output to destroy an enemy drone or blow a hole in a boat. The GA-ASI laser has 20 times the lethality of the one on the Ponce, with five times the power and four times the focus, according to Perry.
Bringing these two technologies together involves a lot more than strapping a laser cannon under the drone’s wings. Hitting a target with a laser mounted on a vibrating platform moving quickly through air laden with dust and water vapor is tougher than launching a Hellfire at a moving vehicle. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at defenseone.com ...
Just wow. Get that down to man-portable size and I’ll take one. Just the thing for fly season around here.
Drones with freakin’ lasers on their heads!
Forget sharks.
Meh, drones with regular old guns and bombs are surely going to be more practical and versatile.
If lasers were in a usable state for warfare, we’d be putting them on all our ships and tanks first, not bothering with drones. This is a publicity stunt, I think, to drum up funding for more military laser research.
I just love how these Popular Mechanix type articles gloss over minor issues like where does the power for this come from?
Obama’s new military will be green, they will be solar... /sarc
You have to ask???
Haha!
Drones with guns and bombs are going to be more vulnerable. So are manned aircraft.
If lasers were in a usable state for warfare, we’d be putting them on all our ships and tanks first, not bothering with drones.
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Go to the article. They have a video of a ship with a 30kw laser.
I’d like to see the system used for surgical anti-personnel strikes. Fry a few goatf*****s and let the rest cower in fear....
I just love how these Popular Mechanix type articles gloss over minor issues like where does the power for this come from?
...
According to the article, rechargeable batteries. They can get off five to six shots on one charge. The system is being designed for a drone with a 3000 pound payload capacity.
Funny, I thought that we had long been using things like targeting pods on aircraft to designate ground targets for bombs and missiles.
Nah. I’d just go to the ‘Annihilate’ setting. Turn to 11.
Yeah, one ship? I said all of our ships... one ship is still just a test case, not tech in a usable, deployable state.
Roger that. 150KW is a lot of power. What's going to generate it, or store it? That will weigh a fair bit, how will the drone get it, a laser, itself, and a fuel supply for itself in the air?
We ARE putting them on our ships. And as for putting them on tanks... they are line of sight so it is better to have them in the air anyway. Also shooting a bunker with a laser is not as effective as shooting it with a cannon. Aircraft are not insulated with cement.
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