With their great range and accuracy, laser weapons
don’t just destroy things. They can disrupt targets non-lethally, making
them increasingly tantalizing to the defense industry.
A powerful fiber-optic laser system in development
by Lockheed Martin is showing a lot of promise. In its first field test
it disabled a small truck from well over a mile away, the company
announced this week. Called ATHENA — short for Advanced Test High Energy
Asset — the system is being built to protect military forces and
infrastructure.
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ATHENA
burned through the small truck’s engine with pinpoint precision. The
truck wasn’t driving normally but was propped up on a platform with its
engine running for the test, Lockheed said. Nonetheless, it’s apparently
the highest power documented by a laser weapon of its kind.
“Fiber-optic lasers are revolutionizing directed energy systems,” Lockheed’s chief technology officer, Keoki Jackson, said
in a statement.
“This test represents the next step to providing lightweight and rugged
laser weapon systems for military aircraft, helicopters, ships and
trucks.”
ATHENA uses a technique called “spectral beam combining”
in which multiple laser modules together form a single high-quality
beam. The technology is based on Lockheed’s earlier $32 million ADAM
(Area Defense Anti-Munitions) system, built to shoot down enemy rockets
in mid-air. Other companies, including Boeing, have also been working on
laser systems.
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The
cost effectiveness of using lasers is part of their appeal, aside from
their accuracy and precision. While firing a surface-to-air missile
costs roughly $400,000 a pop, say
Navy accountants, consider this: The Navy’s
experimental laser LaWS (Laser Weapons System), which has been tested with success
aboard the USS Ponce in the Persian Gulf and is authorized for use in self defense, costs a mere 59 cents a shot to deploy.
As for ATHENA laser’s strength, an everyday pointer laser is about one milliwatt. ATHENA’s 30-kilowatt laser is about
30 million times that.
Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
With their great range and accuracy, laser weapons don’t just destroy things. They can disrupt targets non-lethally, making them increasingly tantalizing to the defense industry.
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