Hi-Tech Wep: Laser Avenger Zaps IEDs
Boeing’s Laser Avenger.
Late last month, the folks at Boeing test fired a Humvee-mounted laser that can be used to destroy IEDs and unexploded ordnance.
Boeing says the 1-kilowatt solid state laser took out five targets during a test shoot at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. The laser was mated to an Avenger air defense vehicle, which usually fires Stinger anti-aircraft missile at low flying aircraft.
The company said the Laser Avenger also zapped two stationary UAVs sitting on the ground – a long way from proving the system can shoot down airborne drones, but still enough for Boeing to claim the laser could be used for UAVs on the move.
Whether it can blow up flying robots is superfluous at this point. Typical IED disposal in Iraq and Afghanistan is a very high risk proposition, requiring a technician to place charges on the bomb, use a robot to do it or a mechanical arm. I know from experience that one insurgent technique is to allow the EOD personnel to deploy to Buffalo arm on an IED, then detonate it, blowing the complex and vulnerable hydraulic arm off and rendering the vehicle useless.
Boeing wouldn’t say how far away the laser works, but even if it’s a little further than the range of a robot or a Buffalo arm, it could be a better solution than today’s options.
Boeing release follows:
The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] has successfully demonstrated that its Avenger-mounted laser system can neutralize the kinds of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and unexploded ordnance (UXO) that threaten U.S. troops deployed in war zones.
During laser firings Sept. 26-27 at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., the Laser Avenger engaged and destroyed five targets representing IED and UXO threats. Laser Avenger, equipped with a 1-kilowatt solid-state laser, proved its effectiveness at ranges that allowed the system to be operated at safe distances from the target. During the test, the system also took a step toward demonstrating a counter-unmanned aerial vehicle capability by destroying two small unmanned aerial vehicles that were stationary on the ground.
Full Defense tech article HERE
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It doesn’t matter whether directed energy or conventional munitions are used to destroy an IED - if you can’t locate it before it goes off you haven’t accomplished a thing.
Now, if it can direct energy with an auto targeting RF device, that can light up a spectrum forward of advancement… at a range of at least 100 yards, then were talking
October 17th, 2007 at 6:58 pmIt wont be long before some smart GI says.. HEY.. I bet I can smoke that insurgent peaking around the corner at me Waaaaaay down there.
A blind insurgent is way better then a dead one. It leaves a big problem..
Does his friends kill him on the spot which causes the group to suddenly distrust each other.. Or do they leave him in which case we get intel and then we kill him.
October 17th, 2007 at 7:45 pmWell I have alot of experience with lasers. Right now I am the CNC programmer and on of the machines I program and run is a 5 Kilowatt solid state laser that can cut through 1″ of material. So a 1 kilowatt solid state should have some good range on it while still having a focused beam.
October 18th, 2007 at 7:27 am