LASERS 1, MORTARS 0

Lasers have been get­ting pretty good at knock­ing down rock­ets, as we’ve seen in tests over the last few years. Now, the ray guns are start­ing to prove that they can zap one of the most com­mon bat­tle­field threats mor­tars as well.
In tests last week at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the Tactical High Energy Laser blasted indi­vid­ual mor­tar rounds and salvos of the muni­tions. That’s the first time a “directed energy” weapon has done so. Since 2000, the weapon, a col­lab­o­ra­tion between the American and Israeli mil­i­taries, has been suc­cess­fully zap­ping rock­ets and artillery shells in tests.
U.S. forces in Iraq could sure use the ray gun right now; mor­tars have become a favorite of insur­gents there, used almost as com­monly as road­side bombs and rocket-​​propelled grenades. Two teenagers were killed over the week­end when mor­tars struck east­ern Baghdad. But the laser is still years away from oper­a­tional use 2007, at the ear­li­est. (via GeekPress)

August 30th, 2004 | Lasers and Ray Guns | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.