THEL

The United States has been working on a weapon called THEL(Tactical High Energy Laser) for many years. Someone I spoke to the other day(worker at a defense contractor) says that THEL is currently operational in Israel!! THEL is a weapon capable of shooting down rockets, missles, artillery rounds, etc. Be sure to check out these great links. If you know any more information, please let me know.

www.defense-update.com...
www.defense-update.com...
www.whatifmodelers.com...

It's currently undergoing testing in Israel, but isn't operational yet. It's have several successful tests however. There is talk that it can be operational in Iraq within a matter of months for the first system, and they will be able to produce one every few months after that. The initial operational date was 2007, however Northrop Grumman has said that they can have one operational and in Baghdad sometime this year.

www.israeli-weapons.com...
www.missilethreat.com...
www.missilethreat.com...


[edit on 1/1/2006 by Zaphod58]

THEL was turned into MTHEL (Mobile) but that was the size of a semi-truck and trailor, and has since been turned into Talon. Which is a Humvee or FCS size/type of vehicle.

ok they have a working one on a airplane dont you think they got it working on the ground ...maby they had one there just easing the public in to this idea of lasers to the public?

[edit on 2-1-2006 by engenerQ]

Actually the one on the plane won't be working until at least late this year IIRC. They have the shell mounted, and they've test fired it on the ground, but they won't make any flights with it mounted on the plane until sometime around late summer of this year, or early next year, and it won't be operational until at least 2008 or later.

Airborne Laser? It won't be doing shoot down tests till 2007 or 2008 I believe. So it won't enter service till 2009 or 2010. They've got done doing ground tests of the COIL laser's 'knowledge point' (high enough power for a long enough time to do it's job). Now it going to be installed, but they have some other things they need to finish testing and installing.

[edit on 2-1-2006 by NWguy83]

Airborne Laser? It won't be doing shoot down tests till 2007 or 2008 I believe. So it won't enter service till 2009 or 2010. They've got done doing ground tests of the COIL laser's 'knowledge point' (high enough power for a long enough time to do it's job). Now it going to be installed, but they have some other things they need to finish testing and installing.

Don't you guys understand that this project was in black projects before it was even moved anywhere else? The SR-71 was hidden in black many years before we saw it. I am sure that this ABL was already tested somewhere in the black world,and they are just taking their time on deployment. If you see these weapons in Popular Science, then most likely we have a prototype

i do think they have tested and mounted it like i said this is a BIG tech leap and i doubt we want to fold our hand b4 we have enough time to perfect it.

i do think they have tested and mounted it like i said this is a BIG tech leap and i doubt we want to fold our hand b4 we have enough time to perfect it.

I'm of the opinion that we have had plenty of time to perfect this concept. In fact, we have had close to fifty years. Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier exactly 43 years after the Wright Brothers flew the Wright Flyer. This NKC-135 was flying by 1970. The laser was invented in 1960. I'm a little concerned that maybe technology is not progressing as quick as it did in the past. However, I have the distinct suspicion that our military has been "banking" technology for a rainy day. See this link below:

www.wpafb.af.mil...

Originally posted by agwardlds
Don't you guys understand that this project was in black projects before it was even moved anywhere else? The SR-71 was hidden in black many years before we saw it. I am sure that this ABL was already tested somewhere in the black world,and they are just taking their time on deployment. If you see these weapons in Popular Science, then most likely we have a prototype

Actually this project was never 'black'. The military has been very public about it. Here is it's predecessor the ALL.

[edit on 2-1-2006 by NWguy83]

There used to be two of those -135s. One had a bunch of different targets and sensors on the side, and they would fire a low powered laser at them from the one in NWguy's link to verify that it would hit what they aimed at, and would actually work.

I think that the NKC-135 was very impressive. To think that it shot down several Aim-9 Sidewinders in the past is interesting. I know the Air Force is keeping high level technology that we don't see. We can't be this far behind

Behind? How do you figure we're behind?

When I was younger I used to read Popular Science on a regular basis. I was always seeing these articles about what the defense contractors are working on. Now, I am constantly seeing articles that are repeating themselves. If I had dime for every scramjet article I have read since the early 1980;s, then I would be a rich man. In my opinion, the US government is keeping vast numbers of projects, many completed, in the dark. This is quite unfortunate. Reagan spoke about the NASP (National Aerospace Plane) in his 1986 State of the Union speech. That was Twenty years ago. What happened? Are we that dumb? We are "banking" the technology for a rainy day. I won't even get started on the ABL/NKC-135 stuff. We have this stuff in our weapons inventory, but it is not in the white world Below is from Reagan's 1986 State of the Union Speech.

program. We're going forward with our shuttle flights. We're going forward to build our space station. And we are going forward with research on a new Orient Express that could, by the end of the next decade, take off from Dulles Airport, accelerate up to 25 times the speed of sound, attaining low Earth orbit or flying to Tokyo within 2 hours. And the same technology transforming our lives can solve the greatest problem of the 20th century. A security shield can one day render nuclear weapons obsolete and free mankind from the prison of nuclear terror. America met one historic challenge and went to the Moon. Now America must meet another: to make our strategic defense real for all the citizens of planet Earth.

www.c-span.org...

It's easy to design something, but not so easy to make it work. There were several projects that they were talking about in the 80s that when they test flew them, they couldn't even come close to getting them workable.

Here is an illustration of what THEL/MTHEL has become, Talon.

Link

Originally posted by agwardlds
When I was younger I used to read Popular Science on a regular basis. I was always seeing these articles about what the defense contractors are working on. Now, I am constantly seeing articles that are repeating themselves. If I had dime for every scramjet article I have read since the early 1980;s, then I would be a rich man. In my opinion, the US government is keeping vast numbers of projects, many completed, in the dark. This is quite unfortunate. Reagan spoke about the NASP (National Aerospace Plane) in his 1986 State of the Union speech. That was Twenty years ago. What happened? Are we that dumb? We are "banking" the technology for a rainy day. I won't even get started on the ABL/NKC-135 stuff. We have this stuff in our weapons inventory, but it is not in the white world

Below is from Reagan's 1986 State of the Union Speech.

program. We're going forward with our shuttle flights. We're going forward to build our space station. And we are going forward with research on a new Orient Express that could, by the end of the next decade, take off from Dulles Airport, accelerate up to 25 times the speed of sound, attaining low Earth orbit or flying to Tokyo within 2 hours. And the same technology transforming our lives can solve the greatest problem of the 20th century. A security shield can one day render nuclear weapons obsolete and free mankind from the prison of nuclear terror. America met one historic challenge and went to the Moon. Now America must meet another: to make our strategic defense real for all the citizens of planet Earth.

www.c-span.org...

I agree with your view of technology completely regarding pop sci articles and how fast or slow it has advanced. Since publications like pop sci and others have been pumping all kinds of high tech stuff for a long time that we have yet to see there's really only a few options

THe publications hyped stuff too much to sell magazines or whatever, and in reality the project was no where near what they led us to believe.

there was a major setback in the program which has caused its delay.

The technology is alive and well, but kept on the down low for various reason which I think is the most likely.

I'm sure they publications hyped stuff a bit to sell better, but like you said we see the same articles over and over years and years apart which leads me to believe there is something material out there. When I think about the hype aspect I always think about the articles from the 50's talking about how we would all have flying cars by 2000, well where is mine

I'm sure they publications hyped stuff a bit to sell better, but like you said we see the same articles over and over years and years apart which leads me to believe there is something material out there. When I think about the hype aspect I always think about the articles from the 50's talking about how we would all have flying cars by 2000, well where is mine

Your flying car won't be coming any time soon, because that would destabilize the world economy. We will only have those flying cars when we have used up all the oil in the Middle East. I mean, what else would keep those Arabs from completely fighting. Otherwise, their countries have absolutely nothing to offer