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* High-energy laser weapons can now operate ‘infinitely’, thanks to a new cooling system that completely eliminates the build-up of waste heat * The technology could significantly change the face of battle by extending engagement times, and increasing range and damage, researchers say ******************************************************* Scientists in China have claimed a major breakthrough in laser weapons technology, potentially changing the face of battle. Photo: US Marine Corps Chinese military scientists have announced a major breakthrough in laser weapon technology, claiming they have developed a new cooling system that allows high-energy lasers to operate “infinitely” without any build-up of waste heat. According...

The Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey open for business today..... Car-rental company Hertz filing for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 in Delaware today.... Economic advisers to the President see better economic news later this year...... For the first time since a major economic downturn in 2002, Argentina is in default on a loan tonight..... Iran's top military commander says his country has intelligence on US military movements in the Persian Gulf region and far beyond....... A successful test of a laser weapon by the United States........ The US is considering a nuclear weapons test for the first time since 1992.........

Lockheed Martin turned up the heat on its laser weapon technology and destroyed a truck from one mile away. The Maryland-based company’s test of the ATHENA laser weapon was the highest power ever recorded of a laser weapon of its type. The Advanced Test High Energy Asset’s March 3 test destroyed its target in a “matter of seconds,” the company said in a statement. An image of the smoking vehicle accompanied its announcement. “This test represents the next step to providing lightweight and rugged laser weapon systems for military aircraft, helicopters, ships and trucks,” said Keoki Jackson, chief technology officer...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Watch out, enemy drones. The U.S. military is developing laser weapons to smite you. The Office of Naval Research announced last week that it is building a laser weapon that will be able to shoot down aerial drones, spelling big trouble for any enemy who tries to target the U.S. Marines. GBAD – Ground-Based Air Defense Directed Energy On-the-Move – is a laser weapon designed to be installed on the Marines’ Humvees, Joint Light Tactical Vehicles and other light tactical ground vehicles. Intended to provide an affordable alternative to traditional firepower, GBADs could prevent enemy drones from tracking and targeting...

In month-long tests at the White Sands missile range in new Mexico, the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HELMD) blew up 90 mortar rounds and several aerial drones using a 10kW-class laser mounted on an armored vehicle. "We had considerable success," Terry Bauer, Army program manager for HELMD told the Christian Science Monitor. The HELMD system uses radar (or as the military calls it "Enhanced Multi Mode Radar") to track targets and focus the laser on them. Once locked, the laser raises the temperature of mortar shells to the point where the explosives they contain combust. "It falls as a...

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...

In late 1960s- early 1970s the United States began works on studying of feasibility of using the outer space for performing combat activities in space and from space. The Government of the USSR by a set of Decrees (first one issued in 1976) assigned domestic activities in this field to a group of organizations-developers led by Energia NPO. During 1970s - 1980s the complex of research was performed to determine possible ways of creation of space means, capable of solving tasks of striking spacecraft of military destination, ballistic missiles in flight, as well as particularly important airborne, sea-borne and ground-based...

Ray Guns Near Crossroads to the Battlefield [Slide Show] The Pentagon ramps up efforts to field directed-energy beam weapons for land, air and sea By Steven Ashley        ARMY CONCEPT FIELD LASER: The U.S. Army hopes to better protect our troops by fielding in the next few years a mobile, ground-based laser weapon that can zap out of the sky multiple incoming rockets, missiles, or mortars. Live-fire tests of the compact, 100-kilowatt-class, solid-state laser technology’s capabilities for precision targeting and area defense missions are to begin by the end of this year.  After more than a century of popular sci-fi...

After more than a century of popular sci-fi fantasies that feature deadly energy weapons, including War of the Worlds, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Star Trek and Star Wars, it looks like the ray gun has finally arrived in the real world. And even if the first ray guns out of the lab can barely fit on the bed of a 30-ton off-road truck rather than in a soldier’s palm, the novel, "speed-of-light" capabilities that lasers could bring to the battlefield has drawn the keen interest of the Pentagon brass, which spends about $400 million a year on directed-energy beam weapons....

A group of retired Russian generals warned on Thursday that the country's space defenses are obsolete and have a limited capability to counter possible threats from space. "Frankly, our space defense capabilities are limited and insufficient to ensure our national security," former Air Force commander Anatoly Kornukov told a roundtable on the future of Russia's air and space defenses in Moscow. He said Russia is lagging behind the United States in the development of space-based weapons and space defense systems by at least 25-30 years and the Russian defense industry cannot meet the demand for advanced weaponry. The Russian political...

Israel plans to replace kinetic air defense systems with laser interceptors. The Israel Air Force has been drafting a program that would introduce laser interceptors for air and missile defense. Officials said lasers would eventually replace all surface-to-air missiles and other kinetic interceptors over the next decade. "In the future, laser systems will be operational, replacing existing systems used by the air defense system," Col. Zvi Haimovitz, commander of the Air Force's anti-aircraft unit in the north, said. Israel has tested in the U.S. the Tactical High Energy Laser system against artillery, mortar and Katyusha rockets. The military's plans for...

On February 12, 2010, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) used the Airborne Laser Test Bed (ALTB) mounted on a Boeing B-747 jumbo jet to shoot down a liquid-propellant and a solid-propellant target missile. The ALTB project is one of the MDA's most ambitious and long-term programs. Washington launched its initial research in this sphere in the 1970s. At that time, an NKC-135-ALL aircraft, a modified version of the KC-135 Stratotanker, was built and used as an airborne laboratory. United Technologies built a 10-ton, 04-0.5-MWt CO2 laser system for the program. The NKC-135-ALL was involved in a series of tests...

The ray gun is real ... or at least it will be soon. The U.S. Army is betting big on laser warfare -- designing, testing and perfecting ultra-precise weapons based on devastatingly powerful beams of light. And given recent developments, it's only a matter of time until the military has in its arsenal a weapon that until now has been the staple of science fiction -- the ray gun. Set your phasers to kill. Boeing, one of the Pentagon's top contractors, already has a laser weapon that will improve the military's ability to counter artillery, mortar, drone aircraft and even...

It sounds like something from a James Bond movie: a massive satellite, the largest ever launched, equipped with a powerful laser to take out the American anti-missile shield in advance of a Soviet first strike. It was real, though—or at least the plan was. In fact, when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev walked out of the October 1986 summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, because President Ronald Reagan wouldn't abandon his Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI, the Soviets were closer to fielding a space-based weapon than the United States was. Less than a year later, as the world continued to criticize Reagan for...

New laser weaponry being developed at Boeing has dealt a telling blow to airborne aircraft -- all of them unmanned -- in successful tests that take military laser technology a few steps closer to assuming a key role in future conflicts. Laser weapons are seen by industry analysts as a major step toward a more effective -- and more cost-effective -- deterrent to enemy threats from the air. Laser weapons can be fired at enemy targets without any apparent risk to human crews involved. However, most defense laser technologies are still many stages behind fictional depictions of laser weapons in...

White Sands Missile Range is testing a new weapon system known as the Laser Centurion Demonstrator. The system, developed by Raytheon, combines proven radar and threat-detection technology with the latest in laser weapons. This demonstration model is intended to prove the capabilities and effectiveness of the new laser weapon as part of the Laser Area Defense Systems program, officials said. The new laser system is designed to replace the 20mm cannon on the Navy's Phalanx system and the Army's Centurion system, according to Raytheon's Web site. The integration of an advanced directed energy weapon into an existing conventional weapon...

Lockheed Martin has completed factory testing of the optical benches for the Airborne Laser's Beam Control/Fire Control (BC/FC) system. The Airborne Laser (ABL) is the first megawatt-class laser weapon system to be carried on a specially configured 747-400F aircraft, designed to autonomously detect, track and destroy hostile ballistic missiles. The Beam Control/Fire Control system will accurately point, focus and fire the laser to provide sufficient energy to destroy the missile while it is still in the highly vulnerable boost phase of flight - before separation of its warheads. The ABL program is managed by the Missile Defense Agency and is...

The U.S. Army and the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMoD) have selected a Northrop Grumman Corporation design concept for the Mobile Tactical High-Energy Laser (MTHEL) prototype, a laser weapon capable of shooting down short-range rockets and artillery projectiles in flight. ``MTHEL represents a transformational weapon system -- the first mobile directed energy weapon that will be able to destroy tactical airborne threats in midair,'' said Pat Caruana, Northrop Grumman Space Technology vice president for missile defense. ``The system meets critical air and missile defense needs for both the U.S. Army and IMoD and represents the culmination of over 30 years...

The missile was approaching fast and gathering speed on a column of flame. Inside a trailer, miles away, it appeared on the radar screen of a soldier on-watch. From its radar signature, he realized it was a Katyusha, a ten-foot long missile launched from a truck and capable of delivering a powerful explosive charge or chemical weapon. Acting quickly, he commanded a device resembling a large spotlight mounted on the roof of the trailer to whir into motion. After panning for a few moments, the device locked onto the distant rocket arching overhead. It shot an invisible high-energy laser beam...