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| DARPA's 'Star Wars'-style Laser Cannon |
| 2005-09-21 |
| DARPA's HELLADS (High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System) will be light enough to fit on a fighter jet or drone aircraft, and yet powerful enough to fire a 150 kilowatt beam of energy. Star Wars laser cannon may be closer than you think. High energy laser weapons already in development are powerful enough to bring down missiles (see MTHEL - Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser). However, their very large size has precluded placement on any but the largest planes. The main weight problem comes from the cooling systems needed. HELLADS makes use of a unique cooling technique to save weight. The high-energy laser uses a liquid that has the same angle of refraction as the mirrors inside the blaster. That way, the "ray gun" can fire away, even while it's being cooled. Currently in the third of five phases of development, a 15 kilowatt subscale prototype is being tested in the laboratory. In the next phase, the demonstrator device will be scaled up to 150 kW, and will specifically be targeted to achieve the low specific weight (5 kg/kW) and compact size need to be mounted in a smaller airborne vehicle. The final phase is engineering, fabricating, integrating and demonstrating the complete HELLADS weapon system on a tactical platform. The device will be built by General Atomics and the tracking system will be built by Lockheed. article has the bad habit of showing Star Wars science fiction still and over-referencing other sci-fi. |
| Posted by:Huporong Snash6523 |
| #4 Anonymoose, You tell folks what you're getting ready to field and then field it because you're covering for something better that's in the backfield. Reference Nature from a couple months or so ago. Berkeley scientists have developed tabletop high energy particle beams using laser wakefield technology. Particle beams are shorter-ranged, but still highly effective devices although they're also energy hogs. Now, if you can build a tabletop model...and Berkeley doesn't power theirs using a nuclear reactor. Their power comes right off the grid... You oughtta' see some of the laser and x-ray devices they've got up there. There's some stuff that'll kill you with lethal radiation so fast you won;t even know you're dead. |
| Posted by: LC FOTSGreg 2005-09-21 23:35 |
| #3 Moose, you're right on many levels. These are important, but not for the stated reasons and uses. Laws of physics are unclassified and unusually resistant to change no matter how many words are written. |
| Posted by: RWV 2005-09-21 22:33 |
| #2 I just wonder why the military is publicizing this system so much? On the surface it would seem to be magnificant against other aircraft, A2A and S2A missiles, and god knows what all else. So why tell everybody? It would explain why combat aircraft production is becoming more oriented towards high speed/high performance drones, with just a few manned aircraft. But something is missing here. I would think that this should be classified to the point of insanity until needed. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-09-21 21:37 |
| #1 When all you have is a hammer, everything in the world looks like a nail. Whan all you know about war is Vietnam, everything in the world looks like a quagmire. When all you know about high tech can be defined by a 70s movie, then everything is Star Wars. Too many in MSM live in far too small worlds. Must be the mirror they keep preening in. |
| Posted by: Elmaigum Glunter5343 2005-09-21 21:10 |