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| Home Front: Tech |
| Highlights of GAO-04-409, Enhancing Missile Defense |
| 2004-04-23 |
| Posted by:Super Hose |
| #2 We could use this right now: The Mobile Tactical High-Energy Laser is a short-range weapon being developed with Israel, which wants it to destroy Katyusha rockets fired at its border villages by Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. The weapon looks like a searchlight. In tests during late 2002, the Army used the high-energy laser to heat artillery shells, which exploded in flight. In earlier tests, the laser shot down 25 Katyushas, both singly and in salvos. Artillery shells generate far less heat than rockets do and are more difficult to track. Also, because rockets are pressurized, they are easier to blow up than shells. The MTHEL is being designed to protect soldiers from artillery and mortar rounds and rockets. the laser system can be packed into about three tractor-trailer loads, he said. The next phase will shrink it to less than one load. Ultimately, it will be small enough to mount on a Humvee. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-04-23 10:56:33 PM |
| #1 lookup THEL http://www.israeli-weapons.com/weapons/missile_systems/systems/THEL.html This is real!!! |
| Posted by: Anonymous4534 2004-04-23 10:20:28 PM |