Posted on 12/14/2013 9:38:08 PM PST by pluvmantelo
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 single piece of metal with a little bit of shrapnel. It basically falls where it was going to fall, but it doesnt explode when it hits the ground," Bauer said. We turn it into a rock, basically.
And if you need optical imagery, weather may inhibit a satellite more than a drone...
The folks in Afghanistan have been doing OK since 1979.
Well, they’ve got it. Now it starts the miniaturization process. In a few years they will be to CCW rules.
I want one, don’t see it on Amazon or EBay yet.
The fix for that is, of course, decoys. If you can get the enemy to focus all of its resources on a few decoys, you find out where he is and what he's got with just a few cardboard boxes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.