Next-gen US drone: now equipped with ‘death ray’ laser
|
December 10, 2012
|
|
|
The next generation of military drones, unveiled by a leading US manufacturer, will not just carry a limited supply of rockets – but will likely be fitted with an ultra-light laser, capable of repeatedly destroying objects at the speed of light.
“It would give us an unlimited magazine,” a person close to the High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS) program told Time magazine.
Over the past four years, the Defense Advance Research Project Agency (DARPA) has given contractor General Atomics over $60 million to develop and then scale HELLADS – a powerful 150 kW ray with a difference.
Current lasers of that strength – enough to destroy an incoming rocket or plane – are bulky, which means they can only be placed on stationary defense systems.
HELLADS, which DARPA says is in the “final development stage,” is radically lighter. It will weigh only 750 kilograms – less than a very small car.
This vastly opens up its potential uses.
A key application of HELLADS is in the new generation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), better known as drones.
In a digital video advertising its own Predator C Avenger drone, General Atomics shows a formation of UAVs annihilating a shower of ground-launched interceptor missiles in a split second, before making them an offensive weapon and targeting objects on the ground.
The capacity of the laser is likely to be multiplied by the capability of the Predator itself. General Atomics believes the most efficient use of the relatively cheap, high-speed drones will be as a large “swarm” of integrated units that can overcome even a large defense network, at the expense of a small amount mechanical casualties.
The bold claims have to be weighed against several reservations.
Neither the UAV nor the laser have reached mass production stage, and although it is evident that the US Air Force sees drones as crucial to its future, the success of the Predator is not yet guaranteed.
Another is the natural limitation of the laser. While it can be easily recharged and work for hours on end, unlike a conventional missile, a laser weapon cannot easily penetrate clouds or smoke with its rays. Essentially, HELLADS will have to see its target before it can shoot it, making its use most likely against missiles and enemy planes, rather than ground-based targets.
Proponents of the new generation of lasers say that despite their nickname of “death rays,” lasers will help to reduce collateral damage with their precision, and mute the ethical criticism that has dogged drones since they have become the preferred method for picking out specific US targets.
Russia, Israel and other leading arms manufacturers say they are working on their own versions of similar portable lasers, though the US developments appear to be at a more advanced stage.
…article originally appeared on rt.com
Tags: Military, laser, stage, research, missiles, efficient, advance, hellads, atomics, vehicles, action, production
Related posts
Depositors Beware: Theft is Legal for Big Banks, and Your Money Will Never Be Safe
By Ellen Brown “With Cyprus . . . the game itself changed. By raiding the depositors’ accounts, a major central bank has gone where they would not previously have dared. The Rubicon has been crossed.” —Eric Sprott, Shree Kargutkar, “Caveat Depositor 3” The crossing of the Rubicon into the confiscation of depositor funds was not a one-off emergency measure limited to…
Be the first to comment on this story
Science is being corrupted to a point of fraud
By Gary Novak Irrationality in science is every bit as extreme as we see in media events, perhaps more so because of the increased demands in science. Very little science is visible to the public. The carbon dioxide issue is an example of science which has come to the surface of public concerns, and it shows a lack of objectivity…
McDonald’s hamburger from 1999 looks exactly the same today
by Jonathan Benson A Utah man’s recent discovery of an old fast food hamburger hiding in a coat pocket serves as a reminder to us all about why we continue to choose fresh foods as close to their natural states as possible over processed foods. What began as a month-long experiment to see how long it takes for a basic…
Gun Grabbing Senators Look To Resurrect Gun Control
by Tim Brown Socialist gun grabbers were dealt a tremendous blow just a couple of weeks ago, in part due to pressure by American patriots letting Washington elected officials know that they would not go quietly into the night towards tyranny. There were also principled men who stood their ground on the Second Amendment, resulting in all of Barack Obama’s…
Homeland Security under investigation for massive ammo buys
The Department of Homeland Security is under investigation for purchasing large stockpiles of ammunition, days before legislation was introduced that would restrict the amount a government agency can legally buy. The Government Accountability Office is now conducting the investigation into the alleged DHS purchases, which is “just getting underway,” GAO spokesman Chuck Young told US News & World Report. DHS…
Liberty Was Also Attacked in Boston
by Ron Paul Forced lockdown of a city. Militarized police riding tanks in the streets. Door-to-door armed searches without warrant. Families thrown out of their homes at gunpoint to be searched without probable cause. Businesses forced to close. Transport shut down. These were not the scenes from a military coup in a far off banana republic, but rather the scenes…
Boston Marathon Bombing And Every Day Terror in America
By Margaret Kimberley Every year, 4,600 Americans are killed in work place related accidents. Every 28 hours a black person is killed by police, corrections officers, security guards or vigilantes. Every year more than 30,000 people are killed by gun violence in this country. The odds of being killed by a terrorist are only 1 in 20 million. These statistics are rarely…
Boston Bombings: Detonator to Mobilize the Entire US Security Apparatus. May Change the World for the Worse!
By Prof. James Petras The relation between the suspected Boston Marathon bombers and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Massachusetts State Police (MSP) and the Boston Police (BP) is a point of contention and controversy. The FBI, at first, claimed no knowledge of the bombing suspects but later was forced to admit having received at least two sets of…