Test of laser from C-130H melts hood of car

Click link to see short video

www.airforcetimes.com...

New video released by the Air Force and Boeing Co. show what happens when a C-130H Hercules aims the Advanced Tactical Laser at the hood of car.

In the video recorded Aug. 30 during a test flight at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., the laser melts the hood and sparks a fire. A press statement from Boeing said the laser “killed the vehicle.”

The weapon uses a chemical laser that fills the cargo hold of C-130 to produce a laser beam fired from a turret mounted in the belly of a C-130.
VIDEO

If the size of laser can be reduced, the Air Force could one day fly laser versions of the AC-130 gunships.

The future of the project is in doubt as it competes for funding with other weapons, but a Boeing official said he is optimistic.

“The bottom line is that ATL works, and works very well,” Gary Fitzmire, program director of Boeing Missile Defense Systems' Directed Energy Systems unit, said in a release. “ATL's components — the high-energy chemical laser, beam control system and battle manager — are performing as one integrated weapon system, delivering effective laser beam energy to ground targets.”

Working with Boeing on the $200 million project, which began in 2002, is the Air Force Research Lab’s Directed Energy Directorate.

This "War of the Worlds" type weaponry may just be the wave of the future. Sure wouldn't want it used on me!

Its pretty cool, but all I saw was a flame and a charred spot, I didn't see anything melted.

I still liked it, hopefully they can shrink those bad boys down and stick them on fighter jets, if they get the funding.

They would be a heck of a lot cheaper then missiles.

reply to post by sad_eyed_lady


Aerial view...


Click the last of the 4 videos...

Much cooler 'take' of the exercise...


Cool find

Interesting. Wish the video had showed the laser coming out of the unit mounted under the aircraft or something visible linking the two together. Would have been cooler. Just saw a plane flying then a hood on fire, looked like separate clips.

Originally posted by happygolucky
reply to post by sad_eyed_lady

 

Aerial view...


Click the last of the 4 videos...

Much cooler 'take' of the exercise...


Cool find

They're we go!

Much better!

reply to post by mkross1983


Thanks!

There are some youtubes on it. Here's one:

Nice find star and flag, but I worry about the government having these types of weapons on a smaller scale.
It's already guilty until proven innocent in our country and police all over are tazing crippled people and old ladies. It's scary to think this could be given to the police at some point.

reply to post by Sundancer


I don't think you have to worry about the police getting this for a very long time.

They don't even know if they can make a working model small enough for a fighter jet, heck they don't even know if they can get funding to explore the possibility of making it small enough for a fighter jet. Star Trek phasers are still in the very far future.

reply to post by mkross1983


laser`s arnt like the movies - 99% of the time its a silent and invisible (to the naked eye) beam.

wait till they integrate reflector satellites (if they haven't already) that can separate the beam into multiple beams and hit multiple ground and air targets at once. It is the ultimate deterrent, instantly frying an entire missile site or multiple ground based targets in a matter of moments.

As long as Americas enemies give up driving tanks and armoured vehicles, and drive around in cars, it should work great.

Chemical lasers are simply impractical for most mobile use in the ground, or on a fighter aircraft. They are heavy, need loads of fuel, take up loads of space, and have very hot exhaust gases.

www.defenceiq.com...

So unless you think they're going to be policing you with AC-130 aircraft then I wouldn't worry. If you want to worry about something look at other kinds of lasers...

[edit on 4/10/2009 by C0bzz]

Well it's great to know that if we are ever invaded by an army of car and truck hoods we got it covered

They have been dragging this project along at a snails pace. Now either this has been very complicated or somebody has been milking it for as much as possible.

Besides I think we have been using them already... Maybe we may have seen the results of it being battle tested

here









[edit on 4-10-2009 by SLAYER69]

reply to post by SLAYER69


The capabilities of that weapon in that rense article are complete fantasy. Not even something as powerful as ABL, a chemical laser that takes up the space of a 747, could do that. Also, lasers tend to not shrink human bodies to the size of newborn babies.

And it's Rense. I wonder how they come up with that stuff.

[edit on 4/10/2009 by C0bzz]

reply to post by C0bzz


You know for the longest time I was all into this stuff. I remember seeing old defense dept videos on TV on what they had developed in the late 80s and early 90s from the SDI program and now Youtube and google searches come up blank.

I remember seeing them burn right through a missile housing etc.

I doubt it's the same system though.

reply to post by SLAYER69


I was never into this stuff in the 1990s, however from what I have seen, none of this stuff has been silenced (and Youtube and Google seem to not be very good at this sort of thing).

www.nircm.com...

Picture of exhaust plume of large chemical laser in above link, and also the test on a booster.

www.defenceiq.com...
(need to register)

EDIT: Lots of it is obviously classified though...

www.deps.org...


[edit on 4/10/2009 by C0bzz]

reply to post by C0bzz


I don't think the lack of info is deliberate. If I gave that impression then I apologize. I meant that nobody cares or is interested anymore.
This isn't what I was looking for but Jump to 6:50

Originally posted by Retikx
wait till they integrate reflector satellites (if they haven't already) that can separate the beam into multiple beams and hit multiple ground and air targets at once. It is the ultimate deterrent, instantly frying an entire missile site or multiple ground based targets in a matter of moments.

I believe they already have something like this...if they have the technology to put it on a plane where they've stated it's too large to put on a fighter jet..space is endless, they probably have a giannnnt version of this orbiting but there is no way for us to know.

the atl is now a test bed for target aquisition and tracking.
The chemical laser has been replaced by solid state lasers