USAF mobile laser downs aerial drones in test
Friday, November 20, 2009 E-Mail this story Free Headline Alerts
WASHINGTON — The United States has demonstrated the ability to destroy unmanned aerial vehicles with a mobile laser.
The U.S. Air Force has sponsored tests of a mobile laser weapons system designed to destroy aircraft. The tests, conducted at the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, Calif., demonstrated the Laser Avenger, produced by Boeing. The company has been involved in other laser weapons programs for the U.S. military.
"These tests validate the use of directed energy to negate potential hostile threats against the homeland," Bill Baker, chief scientist of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate, said.
During the trial, the Laser Avenger tracked and shot down five UAVs under a program titled "Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments, or MATRIX. Operators, in what was termed a breakthrough, used a single, high-brightness laser beam to shoot down unmanned platforms at various ranges.
"MATRIX's performance is especially noteworthy because it demonstrated unprecedented, ultra-precise and lethal acquisition, pointing and tracking at long ranges using relatively low laser power," Boeing Missile Defense Systems vice president Gary Fitzmire said.
The Laser Avenger also contains a 25 mm machine gun. Executives said the lightweight gun was operated in what they termed a successful demonstration of the system's hybrid energy/kinetic capability.