Star Wars comes a step closer: US military bosses reveal success tests of airborne 'death rays'

[INDIAPOSITIVE]

Star Wars comes a step closer: US military bosses reveal success tests of airborne 'death rays'
By Mark Prigg For Dailymail.com17:51 25 May 2015, updated 19:36 25 May 2015

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• Initial trials of laser weapon revealed 'unprecedented power' of system
• Hopes it will one day be used on fighter jets to shoot down drones
• Will now be tested against live targets at White Sands Missile Range

It is a staple of every sci-fi film: A laser weapon mounted to a fighter or spacecraft - and now, it's getting closer to reality.

The US Military Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has revealed it has just completed the first tests of a system that could eventually see laser weapons added to drones and fighter jets.

They say the weapons shows 'unprecedented power' and are about to begin testing it against live targets on firing ranges.

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Initial trials of laser weapon revealed 'unprecedented power' of system, and it will now be tested against live targets at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico (artist's impression shown)
Called the High-Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS), it will create a laser small enough to be mounted on a plane.

'The goal of the HELLADS program is to develop a 150 kilowatt (kW) laser weapon system that is ten times smaller and lighter than current lasers of similar power, enabling integration onto tactical aircraft to defend against and defeat ground threats,' Darpa says.

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It said the secretive trials 'demonstrated sufficient laser power and beam quality to advance to a series of field tests.

'The technical hurdles were daunting, but it is extremely gratifying to have produced a new type of solid-state laser with unprecedented power and beam quality for its size,' said Rich Bagnell, yhe projects program manager.

'The HELLADS laser is now ready to be put to the test on the range against some of the toughest tactical threats our warfighters face.'

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The weapons are expected to be used to shoot down drones.
Ground-based field testing of the HELLADS laser is now expected to begin this summer as an effort jointly funded by DARPA and the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Following the field-testing phase, the goal is to make the system available to the military Services for further refinement, testing or transition to operational use.

The HELLADS program has been developing an electrically driven solid state laser at greatly reduced size and weight over lasers of similar power for tactical use.

The laser was developed by DARPA performer General Atomics

The weapons are expected to be used to shoot down drones.

'Enemy surface-to-air threats to manned and unmanned aircraft have become increasingly sophisticated, creating a need for rapid and effective response to this growing category of threats.

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White Sands Missile range, where the HELLADS laser system is set for field testing this summer.

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The laser was developed by DARPA performer General Atomics
'High power lasers can provide a solution to this challenge, as they harness the speed and power of light to counter multiple threats.'

However, they are also likely to be used on bombing raids to target precise locations.

'Laser weapon systems provide additional capability for offensive missions as well—adding precise targeting with low probability of collateral damage.'


US military bosses reveal success tests of airborne 'death rays' | Daily Mail Online

 

[AMDR]

Can't wait to see HELLADS mounted on the Predator-C for real. Blasting hostile SAMs out of the sky might not be a concept as far out as we thought.

Now the laser love needs to spread to the Navy too. Only this time it needs to destroy missiles not boats and small drones.

 

[GR!FF!N]

Can't wait to see HELLADS mounted on the Predator-C for real. Blasting hostile SAMs out of the sky might not be a concept as far out as we thought.

Now the laser love needs to spread to the Navy too. Only this time it needs to destroy missiles not boats and small drones.

I doubt it as Predator is easy to bring down(Manpads,SAM,AA)..a system like this possibly not going to be mounted on UAVs,rather something like C-130 would justify it.for now,no other country has matured their Laser Tech that much,and USA surely not going to donate it that way.

 

[AMDR]

I doubt it as Predator is easy to bring down(Manpads,SAM,AA)..a system like this possibly not going to be mounted on UAVs,rather something like C-130 would justify it.for now,no other country has matured their Laser Tech that much,and USA surely not going to donate it that way.

Predator-C was one of the reasons HELLADS was developed

 

[Reverse Thinker]

China Pakistan should work in this field future is there with these technologies

 

[Transhumanist]

I doubt it as Predator is easy to bring down(Manpads,SAM,AA)..a system like this possibly not going to be mounted on UAVs,rather something like C-130 would justify it.for now,no other country has matured their Laser Tech that much,and USA surely not going to donate it that way.

Predator-C:

Not:

The Predator-C was designed with suppressed emissions (IR, acoustic, EM, radar, visual) and will be less vulnerable to SAM and MANPADS.

 

[Indus Falcon]

Phantom Works exploring laser-carrying stratospheric UAVs
By: James Drew
Washington DC
Source: Flightglobal.com
18 May 2015

The president of Boeing Phantom Works sees a future for the group's stratospheric Phantom Eye UAV in carrying solid-state lasers for high-altitude sensing and communications missions and then possibly missile defence some time in the next 20 years.

The small-scale Phantom Eye demonstrator aircraft completed nine successful flights before being placed in storage at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Centre in California last year. But Boeing is still looking for opportunities in the military or commercial sectors to carry the development programme forward.

The primary application initially would be as a high-flying satellite surrogate for ground surveillance or communications relay, but further down the road Boeing thinks there could be applications to carry a solid-state laser once the size, weight and power of the technology decreases.

“What I could hypothesise is the potential for a stratospheric UAS to carry a solid-state laser, doing sensing missions and maybe someday evolving to have the power output to be able to do some missile defence,” Phantom Works president Darryl Davis said at a press briefing in St Louis, Missouri, May 18. “Those things are being studied by our team all the time.

“It all comes down to the pace at which solid-state lasers actually come to the market place.”

Boeing built the colossal YAL-1 Airborne Laser Testbed, which was a chemical oxygen iodine laser, or COIL, laser weapon system integrated with a 747-400 airliner. That programme was terminated due to the immense cost per shot and a technological shift toward solid-state, electric-powered laser weapon systems.

The US Defense Department has several ongoing programmes to mature laser technology for land, sea, air and space-based applications, and there is interest from the US Special Forces community in conducting a laser weapon demonstration on a AC-130 gunship using modern lasers.

“There is a lot of interest from a lot of our customers, but there is an awful lot of technology maturation still to go on solid-state lasers,” Davis says. “We don’t want to be looking at chemical lasers, because they come with a logistics tail that becomes complex. A solid-state laser you can recharge and cool more often, whether it’s in a persistent, stratospheric UAV or in a potential future fighter.

“As some of those payloads become more efficient and smaller in size with higher power outputs, we could very easily see, potentially in the next two decades, you could have that kind of a platform doing a sensing mission for sure, and potentially even some communications missions and then evolving someday into a stratospheric, persistent, directed-energy platform.”

The Phantom Eye flew for eight to nine hours at 54,000ft during its last test. The company believes that performance can be expended to several days and at a higher altitude with more investment.

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...FGUAV-2015-0527-GLOBnews&sfid=70120000000taAj