US Military’s High Energy Laser Area Defense System Under Development
If you thought the air to air combat scenes in Star Wars was cool just wait till you see what the US military has planned for 2007. If everything goes as planned we will see HELLADS or for us non-military people, a giant laser that has the ability to shoot things out of the sky. Scientists have found a way to combine the high energy density of a solid state laser with the thermal management of a liquid laser to make a what they nicknamed the “HEL weapon”. As you can tell the world is moving one step closer to global peace thanks to the “HEL weapon”. �
The High Energy Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS), being designed by the Pentagon’s central research and development agency, will weigh just 750 kg (1,650 lb) and measures the size of a large fridge. Dubbed the “HEL weapon” by its developers, a prototype capable of firing a mild one kilowatt (kW) beam has already been produced and there are plans to build a stronger 15-kW version by the end of the year. If everything goes according to plan, an even more powerful weapon producing a 150-kW beam and capable of knocking down a missile will be ready by 2007 for fitting onto aircraft.
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