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US Military Reveals Laser can down Drones and Mortar Rounds.....

MMC

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The US Army has for the first time successfully tested a vehicle-mounted laser that managed to shoot down incoming mortar rounds and drone aircraft, officials said Thursday.

Installed in a dome-shaped turret atop a military vehicle, the high-energy laser hit more than 90 mortar bombs and several small unmanned planes over a six-week test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The experimental weapon, dubbed the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD), likely would not be operational until 2022 if the Army decides to purchase the system, according to officials.

The weapon, with three to five lasers, is designed to protect remote bases from mortar, artillery or rocket fire. Such attacks were frequent against "forward operating" bases in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade.

The laser used in the test this month had a strength of 10 kilowatts (kW), but the program will next use more powerful lasers of 50 kW and then, finally, 100 kW, officials said

A more advanced version of the weapon will eventually be able to knock out objects moving much faster than the mortar rounds, such as cruise missiles, according to military officials.

The US Navy is due in 2014 to equip a ship converted into a "floating base," the USS Ponce, with a laser capable of destroying small boats or surveillance drones.....snip~

US military reveals laser can down drones, mortars


Alright we have successful testing of taking out Mortar rounds and drones. Plus the Navy's for taking out ships. Yet are we leading the way with lasers now? Looks like the Army will lead the way with the defense of US bases with Laser Defense systems. Hu-ah!
tank.gif
 
Now all we need is the sharks.

Hitting more than 90 mortar of them that are incoming from different ranges is awesome I think. Now I think you can see how they will take this to Space and be able to use it as defense with any man made colonies.
 
I reckon it was obamas social politically correct engineering that lead to this advancement.
 
Any mention on the effective range?

A powerful enough laser would make one hell of a sniping weapon, as it's unaffected by gravity, wind, etc.
 
I reckon it was obamas social politically correct engineering that lead to this advancement.

the gays have had their hands in the laser industry since the beginning. It all goes back to those flashy disco lights and raves
 
Let's just say I will believe it when I see it.

Questions unanswered is how fast it can fire again, cool off time, and how mobile the system will be.

This is a test unit, with what seems like the final version being a giant with 100kw of power needed.

23(8).jpg


Well, that is what is going to have to be traveling with this unit then, and possibly even 2 of them since they will need some kind of RADAR to acquire and track these targets.

Interesting, but I am not holding my breath waiting for it.
 
I reckon it was obamas social politically correct engineering that lead to this advancement.

Probably a Democrat Senator has a laser company in his state.
 
The US Army has for the first time successfully tested a vehicle-mounted laser that managed to shoot down incoming mortar rounds and drone aircraft, officials said Thursday.

Installed in a dome-shaped turret atop a military vehicle, the high-energy laser hit more than 90 mortar bombs and several small unmanned planes over a six-week test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The experimental weapon, dubbed the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD), likely would not be operational until 2022 if the Army decides to purchase the system, according to officials.

The weapon, with three to five lasers, is designed to protect remote bases from mortar, artillery or rocket fire. Such attacks were frequent against "forward operating" bases in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade.

The laser used in the test this month had a strength of 10 kilowatts (kW), but the program will next use more powerful lasers of 50 kW and then, finally, 100 kW, officials said

A more advanced version of the weapon will eventually be able to knock out objects moving much faster than the mortar rounds, such as cruise missiles, according to military officials.

The US Navy is due in 2014 to equip a ship converted into a "floating base," the USS Ponce, with a laser capable of destroying small boats or surveillance drones.....snip~

US military reveals laser can down drones, mortars


Alright we have successful testing of taking out Mortar rounds and drones. Plus the Navy's for taking out ships. Yet are we leading the way with lasers now? Looks like the Army will lead the way with the defense of US bases with Laser Defense systems. Hu-ah!
tank.gif

Buck Rogers and Capitan Adama would be proud.
 
Any mention on the effective range?

A powerful enough laser would make one hell of a sniping weapon, as it's unaffected by gravity, wind, etc.


Mornin KK. :2wave: Yeah this is what they were working with on the Mortars. Don't know what its maximum range is.

In the test at White Sands, the laser was fired at 60mm mortar rounds, which have a range of 2,000 to 3,000 yards (1,800-2,700 meters).....snip~
 
Any mention on the effective range?

A powerful enough laser would make one hell of a sniping weapon, as it's unaffected by gravity, wind, etc.

The one shortcoming of lasers, compared to artillery, is a laser cannot make an over-the-horizon shot.

Such technology is the where the military should focus a large part of it's budget. The military also should more seriously consider the long term viable of manned aircraft, as they probably will be almost unusable due to vulnerability to lasers and other new tech.
 
The one shortcoming of lasers, compared to artillery, is a laser cannot make an over-the-horizon shot.

Such technology is the where the military should focus a large part of it's budget. The military also should more seriously consider the long term viable of manned aircraft, as they probably will be almost unusable due to vulnerability to lasers and other new tech.

I was thinking laser + satellite = uber sniping.
 
I was thinking laser + satellite = uber sniping.

Space has been declared a weapons-free zone. However, upper atmosphere flights would be a loophole.
 
Space has been declared a weapons-free zone. However, upper atmosphere flights would be a loophole.

Kinda like how no ones supposed to use chem or bio weapons either, yet new ones are still being developed somehow?
 
I doubt sniping from space would work

Light refracts when entering different materials, will become weaker as it goes through the atmosphere (hitting dust and air molecules) So it will not be a good sniping weapon.
 
The Germans have a stationary version of this, which works fairly well, it is not delployed yet, so I believe it is still in the development stage
 
Lasers and similar weapons likely will be the death blow for manned aircraft being the frontline aircraft too much into the future.
 
The US Army has for the first time successfully tested a vehicle-mounted laser that managed to shoot down incoming mortar rounds and drone aircraft, officials said Thursday.

Installed in a dome-shaped turret atop a military vehicle, the high-energy laser hit more than 90 mortar bombs and several small unmanned planes over a six-week test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The experimental weapon, dubbed the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD), likely would not be operational until 2022 if the Army decides to purchase the system, according to officials.

The weapon, with three to five lasers, is designed to protect remote bases from mortar, artillery or rocket fire. Such attacks were frequent against "forward operating" bases in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade.

The laser used in the test this month had a strength of 10 kilowatts (kW), but the program will next use more powerful lasers of 50 kW and then, finally, 100 kW, officials said

A more advanced version of the weapon will eventually be able to knock out objects moving much faster than the mortar rounds, such as cruise missiles, according to military officials.

The US Navy is due in 2014 to equip a ship converted into a "floating base," the USS Ponce, with a laser capable of destroying small boats or surveillance drones.....snip~

US military reveals laser can down drones, mortars


Alright we have successful testing of taking out Mortar rounds and drones. Plus the Navy's for taking out ships. Yet are we leading the way with lasers now? Looks like the Army will lead the way with the defense of US bases with Laser Defense systems. Hu-ah!
tank.gif

I blame Obama!
 
Exactly! Isn't everything that happens anywhere in the world Obama's fault? I thought the Republicans had established that fact the day after his first inauguration.
 
Lasers and similar weapons likely will be the death blow for manned aircraft being the frontline aircraft too much into the future.

Until someone develops a way to refract and disperse the laser photons on an outer skin shell of manned aircraft, rendering the aircraft immune to the lasers abilities.
 
Until someone develops a way to refract and disperse the laser photons on an outer skin shell of manned aircraft, rendering the aircraft immune to the lasers abilities.

Smoke can do that fairly well. So does fog and dust.

And the same principals that work for stealth and RADAR also work for LASER. Light is reflected in a different direction, so that it is never (or greatly) reduced when it returns to the source.
 
Simple as a mirror maybe? The aircraft senses a laser, aims its mirror and sends the laser light back to the source?
 
Simple as a mirror maybe? The aircraft senses a laser, aims its mirror and sends the laser light back to the source?

Actually, I think a variant of HARM would be fairly easy to develop.
 
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