Are Photon torpedoes next?

[Ender]

Northrop unveils laser to counter mortar attacks

By Michael Sirak
Washington, DC

Northrop Grumman has offered the US Army a directed-energy laser weapon - which it says could be available within 18 months of a contract - to counter the mortar threat to US and coalition forces currently operating in Iraq.

The concept, dubbed the High Energy Laser for Rocket, Artillery and Mortar (HELRAM) defence system, has grown out of the company's continuing work on a deuterium-fluoride chemical laser system under the joint US Army-Israeli Ministry of Defence Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL) programme.

Patrick Caruana, Northrop Grumman vice president for Missile and Space Defense, said the HELRAM concept stems from the company's desire to offer a nearer-term means of shooting down mortar rounds in flight as well as rockets and artillery shells before MTHEL is available: an MTHEL prototype is expected by the end of the decade for testing.

"We have already demonstrated at our test site the shootdown capability against medium and heavy mortar [rounds]," he told JDW on 26 October, referring to tests on 24 August during which the THEL testbed shot down seven mortar rounds, including three during a salvo attack. "That gave us a good deal of confidence that what we had was the ability to engage these threats and kill them."

 

[loki09789]

They are testing/refining sound 'lazers' as well. It is a way of delivering focused sound energy. Step into the energy 'beam' and you can hear clear as a bell, step out and silence (saw it on Tactical to Practical). They even have it set up to direct a 'vomit zone' where the sound energy can be used to make people trying to cross the field feel really icky and discourage trespassing/infiltration.

I wonder how cancer rates will increase for those who end up working around all these new energy based weapons/tools if there are studies already showing that cell phone use may be linked to increased brain tumors.

 

[Flatlander]

They are testing/refining sound 'lazers' as well. It is a way of delivering focused sound energy. Step into the energy 'beam' and you can hear clear as a bell, step out and silence (saw it on Tactical to Practical). They even have it set up to direct a 'vomit zone' where the sound energy can be used to make people trying to cross the field feel really icky and discourage trespassing/infiltration.

That would need to be changed to "saser" from "laser", as it is sound amplification, rather than light. :ultracool

I wonder how cancer rates will increase for those who end up working around all these new energy based weapons/tools if there are studies already showing that cell phone use may be linked to increased brain tumors.

If they can keep a microwave from cooking your face as you peer in the window to see if your pizza pop has exploded yet, they should be able to find a way to keep these operators safe as well.

According to this source:

In the United States, cellular telephones operate in a frequency ranging from about 800 to 2100 megahertz (MHz). In that range, the radiation produced is in the form of non-ionizing radiofrequency (RF) radiation.

Lasers use coherent e/m waves from the visible spectrum, which is a much smaller wavelength.

 

[Zepp]

My question is, what kind of energy requirements do these weapons have, and how would they be powered if they're being used to protect troops camped out in the wilderness? Weapons like these probably need a lot of juice, don't they?

 

[Ender]

Well the earlier laser's used quite amount of power to function properly. I really don't know what the power requirements are for this new type of laser.

Cell phones use microwaves as carrier frequencies. Although they are very low power microwaves, they are still microwaves nonetheless. If the power used by these cell phones was somehow increased, it could fry your brain*L....but power/current/amplification limits are designed into the circuits.

 

[Sapper6]

DoD has been trying to refine the HELRAM project for years. IMO, just another idea born at Groom Lake. ya never know what's next. i can't wait till i get my plasma gun to replace the M-16A2 we all haul now. that'll be SO much fun :mp5: :mp5: