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U.S. Military Is Using Laser Weapons In Battle
Prototype laser air defense systems deployed by the U.S. Army have taken out enemy drones in the Middle East, an Army official told Forbes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremybogaisky/2024/05/06/army-laser-weapons-drones/
福布斯：美軍證實激光武器已投入實戰 並成功於中東摧毁敵方無人機
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BlueHalo's Locust laser air defense system, which is designed to shoot down small drones, rockets and mortar shells.
BlueHalo
The United States military has invested tens of billions of dollars over a half-century in the research and development of directed energy weapons. Now, it’s actually using them in battle.
The Army has used lasers to take down hostile drones in the Middle East, Doug Bush, the Army’s head of acquisitions, recently told Forbes. It’s the first time the Defense Department has acknowledged that such weapons have been used in combat.
“They've worked in some cases,” Bush said. “In the right conditions they're highly effective against certain threats.”
He declined to detail the weapons used, but one appears to be a system called P-HEL. It’s based on the defense contractor BlueHalo’s Locust laser, a boxy pallet-mounted device for fixed-site defense that’s commanded with an Xbox gaming controller. The weapon is designed to discharge a relatively low-powered 20-kilowatt laser beam that melts a critical point on a drone in seconds, knocking it from the sky.
In November 2022, the Army began using the first P-HEL overseas, with a second unit deployed this year, according to BlueHalo, making it the first “major laser weapon system” to be operationally deployed, CEO Jonathan Moneymaker told Forbes. But it has never before confirmed its use in battle.
Moneymaker said Locust has had a “significant” number of successful engagements in which it has burned drones out of the sky. “Not in the onesies, twosies,” he said.
It’s a milestone for the Pentagon, which is wrangling the costs of unmanned aerial combat, where the price of defense often far exceeds that of offense. U.S. air defense missiles cost roughly twice as much as offensive missiles, and the disparity is even worse with the cheap drones that have proliferated in the Middle East and in the Russia-Ukraine war. In the Red Sea, U.S. warships defending cargo vessels from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militants over the past six months have used $2 million missiles to shoot down $2,000 drones.
So-called directed energy weapons like lasers and high-powered microwave systems, which use electromagnetic radiation to fry the electric components of their targets, are vastly cheaper. Their cost per shot ranges between $1 to $10 for the diesel fuel needed to generate the electricity that powers them, according to a 2023 GAO report.
Another benefit of laser weapons: stealth. The beams are usually invisible and silent. Advocates of an effort to test a laser on an Air Force special operations AC-130 gunship touted the prospect of being able to disable vehicle engines and communications equipment without an enemy knowing. (The program was canceled this spring after years of delays.)
It’s a milestone for the Pentagon, which is wrangling the costs of unmanned aerial combat, where the price of defense often far exceeds that of offense. U.S. air defense missiles cost roughly twice as much as offensive missiles, and the disparity is even worse with the cheap drones that have proliferated in the Middle East and in the Russia-Ukraine war. In the Red Sea, U.S. warships defending cargo vessels from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militants over the past six months have used $2 million missiles to shoot down $2,000 drones.
So-called directed energy weapons like lasers and high-powered microwave systems, which use electromagnetic radiation to fry the electric components of their targets, are vastly cheaper. Their cost per shot ranges between $1 to $10 for the diesel fuel needed to generate the electricity that powers them, according to a 2023 GAO report.
Another benefit of laser weapons: stealth. The beams are usually invisible and silent. Advocates of an effort to test a laser on an Air Force special operations AC-130 gunship touted the prospect of being able to disable vehicle engines and communications equipment without an enemy knowing. (The program was canceled this spring after years of delays.)
Small drones are an easier target for the nascent technology compared to missiles and manned warplanes since they’re relatively slow and fly at low altitudes.
But laser weapon systems are expensive to build. The first P-HEL prototypes cost $8 million apiece, the Army told Forbes; prototypes of a vehicle-mounted system with a more powerful 50-KW laser called DE M-SHORAD have cost $73 million. That’s a pricey investment given the many expensive modernization programs competing for the Pentagon’s $825 billion budget.
“It's really tough for the Army to afford a directed energy system that costs as much as an F-35,” said Bush, who hopes prices will drop to a fourth of the stealth fighter jet’s average $82.5 million price tag.
The current generation of laser prototypes also face questions about their effectiveness. Lasers are hampered by sandstorms, rain, fog and smoke. Even on a clear day, air turbulence can defocus and weaken them. And they need to remain focused on a point on a target for several seconds, raising questions over whether a single laser can deal with swarms of drones.
But advocates say laser counter-drone systems don’t have to work in all conditions to be worthwhile.
Bad weather also degrades the effectiveness of the weapons that they’re meant to counter, notes Thomas Karr, who was the inaugural director of a Pentagon office set up to coordinate directed energy research from 2018 to 2020. “The incoming drone isn't going to fly very well in a sandstorm either.”
But laser weapon systems are expensive to build. The first P-HEL prototypes cost $8 million apiece, the Army told Forbes; prototypes of a vehicle-mounted system with a more powerful 50-KW laser called DE M-SHORAD have cost $73 million. That’s a pricey investment given the many expensive modernization programs competing for the Pentagon’s $825 billion budget.
“It's really tough for the Army to afford a directed energy system that costs as much as an F-35,” said Bush, who hopes prices will drop to a fourth of the stealth fighter jet’s average $82.5 million price tag.
The current generation of laser prototypes also face questions about their effectiveness. Lasers are hampered by sandstorms, rain, fog and smoke. Even on a clear day, air turbulence can defocus and weaken them. And they need to remain focused on a point on a target for several seconds, raising questions over whether a single laser can deal with swarms of drones.
But advocates say laser counter-drone systems don’t have to work in all conditions to be worthwhile.
Bad weather also degrades the effectiveness of the weapons that they’re meant to counter, notes Thomas Karr, who was the inaugural director of a Pentagon office set up to coordinate directed energy research from 2018 to 2020. “The incoming drone isn't going to fly very well in a sandstorm either.”
Bush said lasers would just be one part of a multi-layered counter-UAS system including kinetic interceptors like missiles or RTX’s Coyote kamikaze drone ($120,000 a pop) and gun-based weapons like C-RAM.
“If it saved 10% to 20% of the interceptors we would have to otherwise fire, that's still a very good return on investment,” he said.
“If it saved 10% to 20% of the interceptors we would have to otherwise fire, that's still a very good return on investment,” he said.
美軍專門去欺負 落後既中東佬
對住 中國最強福建號, 一樣係龜縮, 唔敢出動
美軍你夠膽對住 福建號射, 我就話你叻啦
對住 中國最強福建號, 一樣係龜縮, 唔敢出動
美軍你夠膽對住 福建號射, 我就話你叻啦
好
The Army Has Officially Deployed Laser Weapons Overseas to Combat Enemy Drones
The Army's Palletized High Energy Laser, or P-HEL, during testing at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, in April 2022. Based on BlueHalo's LOCUST Laser Weapon System, the P-HEL was recently deployed to an undisclosed location overseas. (U.S. Army photo/Brandon Mejia)
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/04/24/army-has-officially-deployed-laser-weapons-overseas-combat-enemy-drones.html
The Army's Palletized High Energy Laser, or P-HEL, during testing at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, in April 2022. Based on BlueHalo's LOCUST Laser Weapon System, the P-HEL was recently deployed to an undisclosed location overseas. (U.S. Army photo/Brandon Mejia)
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/04/24/army-has-officially-deployed-laser-weapons-overseas-combat-enemy-drones.html
幾時出動埋高達 
去咗中東，係咪就係去幫以色列擋伊朗無人機？
係時候搞小型核電unit
用鏡擋唔擋到？
開始懷疑你係真心膠
蕉蕉蕉
其實都係核能
第時喺啲無人機度加返張錫紙就收你皮啦美軍
冇錯 我地中國最勁
福建號幾時去美國海軍事演習
福建號幾時去美國海軍事演習
其實大家有無諗過...
如果laser AA成功，只要搬上太空／興建大量近岸laser AA
已經唔洗再驚核彈
最cheap雞既原子彈都要中子核分裂起爆
只要laser係起爆前射爛個起爆器，根本無辦法核爆到
如果laser AA成功，只要搬上太空／興建大量近岸laser AA
已經唔洗再驚核彈
最cheap雞既原子彈都要中子核分裂起爆
只要laser係起爆前射爛個起爆器，根本無辦法核爆到
轉頭運一套去烏克蘭睇吓實戰經驗
呢個係伽馬射線