Boeing: We zapped a UAV with a laser  
January 26, 2009 12:13 PM PST


There's still a lot of blue sky in Boeing's plans for directed-energy weapons like the Laser Avenger.

Boeing is seeing a glimmer of progress in its work toward fielding laser weapons.

The defense industry giant on Monday said tests of its Laser Avenger system in December marked "the first time a combat vehicle has used a laser to shoot down a UAV," or unmanned aerial vehicle. In the testing, the Humvee-mounted Laser Avenger located and tracked three small UAVs in flight over the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and knocked one of the drone aircraft out of the sky.

Boeing didn't go into much detail about the shoot-down. In response to a query by CNET News, it did say this much about the strike by the the kilowatt-class laser: "A hole was burned in a critical flight control element of the UAV, rendering the aircraft unflyable."  

While decades of Hollywood imagery may conjure up a vision of a target disintegrating in a sparkle of light, the actual workings of the laser beam are probably more prosaic. For instance, the beam from Boeing's much, much larger Airborne Laser, which is intended to disable long-range missiles in flight, uses heat to create a weak spot on the skin of the missile, causing it to rupture in flight. Boeing hopes to conduct the first aerial shoot-down test with the much-delayed 747-based Airborne Laser later this year.
In tests in 2007, the Laser Avenger "neutralized" improvised explosive devices (IEDs) like those that have been a deadly threat in Iraq, along with other unexploded munitions.

Those types of targets don't move, so the ability to track and zap a small aircraft in flight is clearly a step forward for directed-energy weapons. But testing on a missile range is still a far cry from effective use on the battlefield, where military units may have to fire on the move against multiple targets approaching through cluttered airspace.

It's not clear how long the laser beam has to be locked on a target such as a UAV before it can cause sufficient damage, or how well the beam can be corrected to deal with dust and other atmospheric disturbances.

Here's how the targeting system works, according to the company:
Once a target has been sighted, the laser system will "zoom in" on the target and use advanced UAV tracking algorithms to acquire and track the target even in heavy background clutter. Only after positive identification will it fire the high energy laser.
Boeing is pitching the Laser Avenger––and these are Boeing's own words––as a defense against UAVs "like those that increasingly threaten U.S. troops deployed in war zones."

In the near term, of course, it's exactly the opposite––UAVs such as the Predator from General Atomics and Boeing's ScanEagle are a boon to U.S. troops and represent a distinct tactical advantage for U.S. forces against al-Qaeda and other foes. The MQ-1 Predator, in particular, has been very successful as both a reconnaissance tool and a weapons platform.

The Boeing-funded Laser Avenger is based on the existing Avenger platform, which carries more traditional "kinetic" weapons, including Stinger antiaircraft missiles and a .50-caliber machine gun.









Laser system could aid troops in war zones

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Jan 26, 2009 12:48:39 EST

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A laser system that looks like a turret mounted on a Humvee has successfully shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle, the first time a laser on a combat vehicle destroyed a UAV, Boeing Co. said Monday.

Boeing tested the Avenger laser system last month at White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico, and said the test demonstrated it can shoot down a small unmanned aerial vehicle like those that increasingly threaten U.S. troops in war zones.

Avenger used its advanced targeting system to find and track three small UAVs flying against a complex background of mountains and desert, and shot down one of the UAVs.

The program director of Boeing’s Directed Energy Systems, Gary Fitzmire, said that unlike conventional weapons, the Avenger can fire without creating missile exhaust or gun flashes that would give away its position.

“Small UAVs armed with explosives or equipped with surveillance sensors are a growing threat on the battlefield,” Fitzmire said.

December’s tests follow a 2007 demonstration in which an earlier version neutralized improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnance on the ground.

“We doubled the laser power, added sophisticated acquisition, tracking and pointing capability” and made the design simpler, said Lee Gutheinz, Boeing program director for High-Energy Laser-Electro-Optical Systems.

The Avenger integrates the directed energy weapon with kinetic weapons on the air defense system developed by Boeing Combat Systems in Huntsville, Ala.

Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, with headquarters in St. Louis, is a $32.1 billion business with 71,000 employees worldwide.

Stinger missiles, M2, and a frikken laser beam.

Daddy wants.

all the money Boeing has and their ad has a cheesy boxed photoshop lens flare filter on it...lol.

Dupe!

If you call the dupe you have to provide the link.  

Besides it's rude and inconsiderate to call dupe.  It's just bad manners.

Sorry! It was not my intent to be rude. Will note for future reference.

How long till Obama offers the technology to his Muslim friends as a good will gesture.

Fine.  Searching "laser" for the last 7 days in GD:



http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=821649



 

It's one of the ARFcom rules of dupe.

If you call a dupe you must provide a link.

It's not a dupe if someone uses a faggoty assfucked queerbait cutise thread title instead of the one provided by the actual news article.

I searched using "Avenger" as that's what the article is about.  

I know it's a rule, hence why I gave you the link.



As titles go, that one wasn't bad.



It wasn't "OMGZ lo0k @ this giant laz0r!!!"



Like a lot of them are.



 

Too bad you didn't do some basic research before shotting yourself in the foot.  

If you bothered to look at the picture you would have seen that it was edited by Gizmodo (hence the big fucking watermark on the bottom of the photo that says "edited by Gizmodo".)

Here is Boeings original unedited photo -

Photo Credit: Boeing PhotoNeg #: MSF09-0013-1

You didn't post the original article, I didn't expect you to provide the link.  
Dupe Cop.  

eJBDT?



electronic Jack Booted Dupe Thug?




 

http://i39.tinypic.com/259e6n6.gif