YES!!!


Boeing Receives Aircraft for Laser Gunship Program

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 23, 2006 -- Boeing Missile Defense Systems (MDS) has
taken delivery of the aircraft for the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL)
program, achieving the first of several key milestones in the laser
gunship effort.

The C-130H transport, which belongs to the U.S. Air Force's 46th Test
Wing, was handed over to Boeing on Jan. 18 in Crestview, Fla., near
Eglin Air Force Base. Boeing is modifying the aircraft to enable it to
carry a high-energy chemical laser and battle management and beam
control subsystems.

Boeing will begin flight testing the aircraft this summer with all
subsystems on board except the high-energy laser. A low-power surrogate
laser will stand in for the kilowatt-class, high-energy laser.

The high-energy laser is being built in Albuquerque, N.M., and is
scheduled to achieve "first light" in ground tests this summer. By 2007,
Boeing will install the device on the aircraft and fire it in-flight at
mission-representative ground targets to demonstrate the military
utility of high-energy lasers. The laser will be fired through an
existing 50-inch-diameter hole in the aircraft's belly.

Boeing is developing the Advanced Tactical Laser for the U.S. Defense
Department through an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD)
program. Following the 2007 tests, it is anticipated that DOD will
approve starting ATL's full-scale development.

ATL can produce both lethal and non-lethal effects, supporting missions
on the battlefield and in urban operations. It can destroy, damage, or
disable targets with little to no collateral damage. As a directed
energy weapon, the Advanced Tactical Laser is complementary to the
Airborne Laser (ABL), which Boeing is developing for the U.S. Missile
Defense Agency to destroy ballistic missiles in their boost phase of
flight. ABL consists of a megawatt-class chemical laser mounted on a
Boeing 747-400 freighter aircraft.

"ATL will do for air-to-ground combat what ABL will do for missile
defense: revolutionize the battlefield," said Pat Shanahan, Boeing
Missile Defense Systems vice president and general manager. "ATL will
give the warfighter a speed-of-light, precision engagement capability
and avoid the kind of collateral damage sometimes associated with such
traditional weapons as bombs and missiles."

Boeing's Advanced Tactical Laser industry team includes L-3
Communications/Brasher, which made the turret for the laser, and HYTEC
Incorporated, which made various structural elements of the weapon
system.

That's some very cool stuff!  If the concept proves viable I'd hope to see it in a C-130J or C-17 in a few more years.  I'm still waiting for the AC-17, with the 155mm howitzer, death from above indeed!

Would you like your insurgent regular, or Extra Crispy?

Quoted: Would you like your insurgent gun owner regular, or Extra Crispy?

Fixed.  

Quoted: Would you like your insurgent regular, or Extra Crispy?

Regular.....Supersized with a Dr. Pepper please....

Very cool!  I wonder what kind of effectiveness they are expecting to achieve with this.  Will it be able to kill a bunker?  A tank?  Moving targets?  Will it be limited to technicals or can it take out at least light armored vehicles?  What kind of range are they looking at?  Possible to use it in the anti-ship role?

Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing what it can do.  I hope we can have it ready in time to deal with China.  This technology could well bear fruit.  Will be very cool if they can use the ABL system to take out incoming Chinese fighters over the Taiwan straight!


-K

From what I recall of Boeing's laser program and the time I spent in college as a laser lab assistant this is very serious tech.  A 10 watt laser will burn through a brick easily or pass through your hand before you realized you turned the damn thing on while standing in front of it.  A multi-kilowatt laser is several orders of magnitude above and beyond this - I am willing to bet that one of these babies at full blast could cut through a battleship in a couple of seconds.

This sort of thing is going to revolutionize ballistics since ballistics will have less reason to exist when you have a perfect line-of-sight weapon.

Quoted: From what I recall of Boeing's laser program and the time I spent in college as a laser lab assistant this is very serious tech.  A 10 watt laser will burn through a brick easily or pass through your hand before you realized you turned the damn thing on while standing in front of it.  A multi-kilowatt laser is several orders of magnitude above and beyond this - I am willing to bet that one of these babies at full blast could cut through a battleship in a couple of seconds. This sort of thing is going to revolutionize ballistics since ballistics will have less reason to exist when you have a perfect line-of-sight weapon.

at a given range.  Right?  

New truth to the old sayin "If we can see it we can kill it" eh? :-D

Very cool.


Ballistics will always have a place in war in my opinion. Sometimes a target is over the horizon and nothing but 155 will do

Until we just drop stuff... Like say, a depleted U shaft from our UAVs.  

Quoted: From what I recall of Boeing's laser program and the time I spent in college as a laser lab assistant this is very serious tech.  A 10 watt laser will burn through a brick easily or pass through your hand before you realized you turned the damn thing on while standing in front of it.  A multi-kilowatt laser is several orders of magnitude above and beyond this - I am willing to bet that one of these babies at full blast could cut through a battleship in a couple of seconds. This sort of thing is going to revolutionize ballistics since ballistics will have less reason to exist when you have a perfect line-of-sight weapon.

So a phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range really would be some serious firepower.  How large are these lazers?  How long do you think till they are on HMMWV sized vehicles and then hand held?


-K

Quoted: Quoted: From what I recall of Boeing's laser program and the time I spent in college as a laser lab assistant this is very serious tech.  A 10 watt laser will burn through a brick easily or pass through your hand before you realized you turned the damn thing on while standing in front of it.  A multi-kilowatt laser is several orders of magnitude above and beyond this - I am willing to bet that one of these babies at full blast could cut through a battleship in a couple of seconds. This sort of thing is going to revolutionize ballistics since ballistics will have less reason to exist when you have a perfect line-of-sight weapon. So a phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range really would be some serious firepower.  How large are these lazers?  How long do you think till they are on HMMWV sized vehicles and then hand held? -K

They'll be hooking them up to the aux power shafts of F-35's, first...

Real Genuises?

I think they need to keep laser weapons development a secret.

Local ROPer mullah preaching at prayer and when he says "by the will of Allah" fucking fry him from the sky....followed by a loud speaker telling them Allah's will has been done, now give the infidels their oil.