Boeing Laser Beams Can Take Down Airplanes
Boeing successfully shot down unmanned aircraft by shooting lasers.
In September, we reported that Boeing successfully defeated a ground target using its Advanced Tactical Laser aircraft. Now the company has shown its laser prowess again by tracking and destroying small, unmanned aerial vehicles in the air. A single laser beam, fired by the U.S. Air Force-sponsored Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments (MATRIX), shot down five UAVs at various ranges.
"The Air Force and Boeing achieved a directed-energy breakthrough with these tests," said Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Missile Defense Systems' Directed Energy Systems unit. "MATRIX's performance is especially noteworthy because it demonstrated unprecedented, ultra-precise and lethal acquisition, pointing and tracking at long ranges using relatively low laser power."
In addition to the MATRIX's successful mission, Boeing's privately funded program, Laser Avenger, shot down a UAV as well. Laser Avenger integrates a directed-energy weapon with existing kinetic weapons on an Avenger air defense system. MATRIX, on the other hand, is a mobile, trailer-mounted test bed that integrates with existing test-range radar, according to Boeing.
Boeing is currently developing laser weapon systems for a variety of U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy applications.
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Phasers on stun, Scottie
Well, for all those 'neon green' folks out there, there won't be any 'windmill powered' laser systems any time soon...
Oh no we are all fucked the only country to drop atomic bomb now has an airbourne laser, god help the rest of the world, you say iran is insane, maybe not!
soon we will have sharks with frickin lasers on them.
Can they make me one for my car?
screen-shot or it didn't happen!
"Have you ever been on approach for say SFO? And you get some stupid slow ass cessna 172 in your way? Well not anymore! Just blow their asses out of sky!"
Gun, command line: Targetting.
nice. i now feel much safer in a plane. :-p
Oh no we are all fucked the only country to drop atomic bomb now has an airbourne laser, god help the rest of the world, you say iran is insane, maybe not!
Hey, don't worry dude. We haven't landed on the moon yet.
I wonder exactly what they consider a relatively low powered laser.
they are gonna so pissed when they discovered that they spent billions for nothing. mirror? heat resistance? fog? oh wait... they known it already...
This isn't your laser pointer.
Mirror? Not even the best mirrors in the world reflect enough of this things energy for the material of the mirror not melt.
Heat Resistance? This turn what its focused on into plasma. Its not simply a matter of dissipating heat.
Fog? The line of steam and this thing would make on its way to the target would be really cool to see.
what ? seems like star wars tech
And this is unclassified. Think about that.
so does this mean hand-held laser blaster is coming...
I hope Boeing will not outsource the production of this to low cost country like China...
holy crap, and only 25 years after the soviet A-160 did it
Boeing- the company whose ceo wanted to move its headquarters to China.
Its about time we got some decent directed energy weapons!!!
Um this technology has been around for 30+ yrs now. Have you guys ever watched the documentary "Star Trek"? Its a series of live action following Star Ship and its crew. Kinda like "John and Kate Plus 8"...except "Plus 8 x 100". If you watch the documentary, you'll see the crew use this phaser thing.
I hope Boeing will not outsource the production of this to low cost country like China...
they probably already have their own, that's why TH can post articles about this.
you'd think they might sell one to me with a nuclear power plant?
"All I want, are sharks with freakin LASER BEAMS attached to their heads! Now is that too much to ask?"
so does this mean hand-held laser blaster is coming...
Yea...I can't even begin to imagine what the army already has working, and what they have in development...
What good is it for if keep hiitng the wrong targets like weddings in Afhganinstan
It really doesn't matter if Boeing moves it's headquarters to China although that would be a bad move. If you think China doesn't have a huge espionage campaign going against companies like this right as we speak you are crazy. There is a 99% chance that they have insiders in this company gathering everything they need. You wonder why their is barely any R&D and money going on in China, it's mainly cause they don't need to when countries like America will pay for it and then they can just take it for free. Not only that but you can be sure they are using cyber espionage to gain tech secrets also.
For anyone interested they can read the report just released by the US China economic and security people here. http://www.uscc.gov/annual_report/ [...] report.php
Well its a step forward, but what I want to know is how much power it takes to sustain it and how long it took to shoot down said UAV's. Also if this is the stuff they are letting the public know I wonder what they are working on that is still classified.
I wonder if these lasers go like "pew, pew!"
I hope they make a laser beam satellite and put it in orbit and demolish Iran with it. Then, aim it at California and get rid of 80% of the country's idiots in one shot.
I wonder if these lasers go like "pew, pew!"
thats what im wondering