Beyond Bullets - The US Armys new battlefield laser

A fuzzy, green dot from a laser pointer drifts along the ground and comes to rest on an odd-looking piece of metal. For the next few seconds the light hangs motionless. Then, just as we realize the dot is focused on a hand grenade, the image on our viewing screen dissolves in white light. The really impressive sight comes into view when the screen clears. We see that the concrete pad beneath the blast is scorched, but otherwise perfectly intact. "We burn the least explosive part of the munition," explains Scott McPheeters, our guide for a visit to the Army's laser weapons testing center on the sprawling White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. You may have observed the same low-force blast when as a kid you stupidly tried using a match to light a firecracker that had lost its fuse.

Over the next few minutes we watch the Army's Humvee-mounted Zeus laser cast its glowing eye upon an assortment of unexploded ordnance. Seeing Zeus in action, we realize we are looking at more than a fast new tool for safely clearing unexploded ordnance. We are looking at the first major military breakthrough of the 21st century.



The Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser has scored 3Array kills, including 26 Katyusha rockets.

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Great in theory ... pity we never saw it in action. I was waiting for it as its been out on the net for at least a year now...

Yes, it has been around for a while now. I remeber reading reports of an Israeli laser deployed on the Lebanese boarder after their withdrawl. It has been credited with shooting down several rockets and mortar shells.

Whoa, this is some awesome technology. Maybe the reason that it wasn't used in GWII is because the U.S. figured it wasn't needed to defeat the Iraqi forces.

Could this also be a part of the Star Wars II missile defense program? Below is a bit more about it's potential deployment:

The U.S. Air Force plans to test the first of what may become a fleet of seven airborne laser (ABL) cannons. The chemical oxygen-iodine lasers will be mounted inside converted Boeing 747-400F freighters, and they will be able to shoot down Scuds and other theater ballistic missiles that threaten U.S. and allied troops.