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Old 06-27-2017, 06:44 AM
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Arrow Laser-equipped helicopter zaps its first target, to defense contractor's delight

Laser-equipped helicopter zaps its first target, to defense contractor's delight
By DEREK HAWKINS | The Washington Post | Published: June 27, 2017
RE: https://www.stripes.com/news/us/lase...1#.WVJgUVTyuM8

(Photo's on site only)

During World War II, when British Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously said, "we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air," he probably had no idea that his allies on the other side of the Atlantic would one day be mounting high-powered lasers onto attack helicopters and frying targets in the blink of an eye.

But the U.S. military and a leading defense contractor have apparently pulled off such a feat.

On Monday, Raytheon said that it had bolted a laser to a U.S. Army Apache AH-64 helicopter and zapped an unmanned target at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The weapons test marked the first time a "fully integrated laser system" had successfully located and shot a target from a rotary-wing aircraft "over a wide variety of flight regimes, altitudes and air speeds," the company said in a statement.

Raytheon didn't specify what the target was but said the helicopter's laser "directed energy" on it from nearly a mile away. Unlike the computer rendering of the weapon provided by the company, the laser's beam is invisible in real life.

(photo on site only) A U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopter assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division conducts an aerial demonstration at Fort Bragg, North Carolina on May 25, 2017.
BARRY LOO/U.S. AIR FORCE

Video from the missile range shows the Apache flying over the New Mexico desert with the laser - a gray, torpedo-like tube with a ball on the front - attached to the vehicle's right side. Orange cables run from the back of the laser into the interior of the helicopter. At one point the video shows black and white images of a rectangular object with a bright flash in the center of it, captioned "LASER ON TARGET." Dramatic drum music plays in the background. The laser's shots were not shown in the footage.

The goal of the experiment, conducted in collaboration with U.S. Special Operations Command, was to see how well the Apache could fire the weapon given the vibration of the helicopter, the dust kicked up by the rotating blades and the vehicle's "downwash," or downward airflow. The information the team gleaned will be used to further develop the weapon, known simply as a High Energy Laser, or HEL.

"This data collection shows we're right on track," a Raytheon executive said in a statement.

The initiative has been underway for more than a year, according to National Defense Magazine, which reported last May that the military was eyeing a "feasibility test" for the weapon. The magazine quoted an Army official at the time saying that the technology was still in its early stages - not quite science fiction, but a long way from the battlefield.

"The lens we are looking at this through right now is: 'Is it feasible to do this?' We're not at the point where we've laid out a business case to advance it," said Col. John Vannoy, one of the program managers. "I wouldn't say that we're at the tipping point and you're going to see a Star Wars like effect or a Death Star laser hanging off the side of a rotary wing aircraft."

The military is excited about the prospect of weaponized lasers for a number of reasons. For one, they fire in an almost perfectly straight line, making them far more accurate than artillery rounds. They can also be adjusted to destroy or disable different materials with greater precision, which could help reduce civilian casualties in warfare, especially when fired from attack helicopters. Tyler Rogoway, who writes about the military for The Drive, explained how that might work:

---

Unless you want a fairly large explosion that will obliterate a small building or a few vehicles, the best weapons available to Apache crews are the helicopter's 30mm cannon and the recent addition of laser-guided rockets. Yet even these surgical weapons, with their highly-localized effects on the battlefield, still use high-explosives to make a big bang; if you want to be extremely precise with almost no chance of collateral damage, lasers are the way to go.

If you want a tactical aircraft fighting in a combat zone to destroy a piece of equipment, like a power generator, but without destroying the structure it's attached to, or to disable a vehicle without killing anyone standing around it, you're out of luck unless you have a laser.

---

On a slightly less gruesome note, laser rounds are a lot cheaper than artillery rounds, which cost tens of thousands of dollars each, as Matthew Ketner, branch chief of the High Energy Laser Controls and Integration Directorate in Virginia, noted last month.

"Unlike a traditional gun," he said, "lasers don't run out of bullets."

Of course, such weapons are designed to destroy structures and take lives, and human rights organizations have raised alarms about their deployment in the battlefield (imagine the unspeakable pain of being burned by a high-energy light beam from miles away). In 1995, the United Nations banned "blinding" laser weapons, which to date have never been used in armed conflict.

Raytheon's claimed success in New Mexico was the latest in a series of highly-publicized tests of laser weapons systems by the U.S. military and defense contractors. In 2014, the U.S. Navy mounted a 30-kilowatt laser gun on the deck of the USS Ponce and blasted some small targets, including a moving speed boat. Video from the demonstration showed a burst of fire and smoke aboard the deck of the boat as the weapon hit its target.

Also in 2014, Boeing published a video claiming to show a 10-kilowatt laser destroying a mortar in mid-flight. The military has also had success this year beaming drones out of the sky using 5- and 10-kilowatt lasers mounted atop armored vehicles. After one exercise, an Army staff sergeant told reporters he lost count of how many he shot down. "It was extremely effective," he said.
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O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
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Old 06-27-2017, 06:46 AM
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US Army tests laser on Apache helicopter
By: Jen Judson, June 26, 2017 (Photo Credit: Courtesy of Raytheon)
RE: http://www.defensenews.com/articles/...che-helicopter

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army and Raytheon have completed a flight test of a high-energy laser system on an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter that was deemed successful, according to a Raytheon statement Monday.

The recent test at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, “marks the first time that a fully integrated laser system successfully engaged and fired on a target from a rotary-wing aircraft over a wide variety of flight regimes, altitudes and air speeds,” the company said.

Raytheon said the test achieved all primary and secondary goals that show a high-energy laser, or HEL, on an attack helicopter can provide high-resolution, multiband targeting sensor performance and beam propagation.

For the test, Raytheon coupled a variant of the Multi-Spectral Targeting System — an advanced electro-optical infrared sensor — with a laser, according to the statement. The MTS provides targeting information, situational awareness and beam control.

The laser tracked and directed energy on “a number” of targets, Raytheon added.

The testing, according to the company, will also guide the future design of HEL systems from data collected related to vibration, dust and rotor downwash on laser beam control and steering.

"This data collection shows we're on the right track. By combining combat proven sensors, like the MTS, with multiple laser technologies, we can bring this capability to the battlefield sooner rather than later,” Art Morrish, vice president of Advanced Concept and Technologies for Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, said in the statement.

Testing lasers on Apaches has been in the works for some time. U.S. Special Operations Command announced a year ago that it planned to test a laser weapon on an Apache.

Laser development across the Defense Department has kicked into high gear over the past several years as it seeks cheaper solutions to go up against threat targets rather than using expensive missiles. Putting a laser on an Apache that can take out targets would also increase the number of targets an Apache can take out in one mission. Currently, an Apache can hold 16 Hellfire missiles.
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Boats

O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
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