Army to test high-energy laser this fall to defend against UAVs, rockets, mortars, and artillery rounds

June 28, 2011
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., 28 June 2011. U.S. Army laser weapons experts are making plans to test the truck-mounted High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator (HEL TD) this fall at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., after engineers at the Boeing Co. Directed Energy Systems segment in Huntsville, Ala., completed system integration of key components for the mobile future laser weapon designed to defend Army troops against rockets, artillery shells, mortars, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and similar threats, Boeing officials say. Boeing (NYSE:BA) engineers have installed the HEL TD's beam control system and other hardware onto the heavy military truck that will carry the laser weapon where it is most needed.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., 28 June 2011. U.S. Army laser weapons experts are making plans to test the truck-mounted High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator (HEL TD) this fall at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., after engineers at the Boeing Co. Directed Energy Systems segment in Huntsville, Ala., completed system integration of key components for the mobile future laser weapon designed to defend Army troops against rockets, artillery shells, mortars, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and similar threats, Boeing officials say.Boeing (NYSE:BA) engineers have installed the HEL TD's beam control system and other hardware onto the heavy military truck that will carry the laser weapon where it is most needed. The truck is the Oshkosh Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT), HEL TD’s vehicle platform. Boeing is responsible for integrating the HEL TD's beam-control subsystem on heavy truck. The Northrop Grumman Corp. Space Systems segment in Redondo Beach, Calif., also is working on the HEL TD program.This latest systems-integration effort paves the way for low-power system testing at the High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility at White Sands Missile Range sometime this fall to demonstrate the system’s ability to acquire, track, and target moving projectiles.

The HEL TD is designed to acquire, track, and choose the aim point on a target, reshape and align the system's multi-hundred-kilowatt laser beam, and focus the laser beam on the target. The system uses mirrors, high-speed processors, and high-speed optical sensors, as well as solid-state laser that generates a laser stronger than 100 kilowatts.

The HEL TD program will help move directed-energy technologies into Army acquisition programs to provide ultra-precision strike with little to no collateral damage, such as disrupting electro-optical infrared (IR) sensors, and neutralizing mines from a safe distance. Managing the HEL TD program is the Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command headquarters at Redstone Arsenal, Ala.

For more information contact Boeing Directed Energy Systems online at www.boeing.com/defense-space/ic/des, or the Army Space and Missile Defense Command at www.army.mil/smdc.

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