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Combat Lasers To Be Added To US Fighter Jets (nextbigfuture.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the flight-sabers dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NextBigFuture: The US Air Force plans to arm its fleet of drones and fighter jets with high-tech laser weapons.... Ground testing of a laser weapon called the High Energy Laser, or HEL, was slated to take place last year at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, service officials said...

The Air Force plans to begin firing laser weapons from larger platforms such as C-17s and C-130s until the technological miniaturization efforts can configure the weapon to fire from fighter jets such as an F-15, F-16 or F-35. Instead of flying with six or seven missiles on an aircraft, a directed energy weapons system could fire thousands of shots using a single gallon of jet fuel.

8 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. Also known as by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ground testing of a laser weapon called the High Energy Laser

    It will also be referred to by some as the High-Powered Laser, or "HP Laser" for short, and jets with this type of weapon mounted upon them shall be known as HP Laser Jets

    1. Re:Also known as by Owza · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Fire the laser!", Error - 'PC LOAD LETTER'

    2. Re:Also known as by Malenx · · Score: 5, Funny

      I really hope they don't shutoff all of the laser pods just because the magenta laser is low on fuel.

    3. Re:Also known as by halivar · · Score: 5, Funny

      PC LOAD LETTER? What the fuck does that mean?

    4. Re:Also known as by Nidi62 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I really hope they don't shutoff all of the laser pods just because the magenta laser is low on fuel.

      And in a boon to defense manufacturers, it will actually be cheaper to purchase a whole new airframe than it will be to refill the laser cartridges.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  2. Re:Single gallon of jet fuel by peragrin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The thing is current hel are 10 kilowatt and are the size of a car(often towed behind a Humvee)

    To get to the mega joule requires a lot more fuel than a gallon of jet gas.

    --
    i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
  3. Energy density by Richard_at_work · · Score: 5, Informative

    Have laser power requirements really changed that dramatically since the Boeing YAL-1 project ended? The chemical oxygen iodine laser aboard the YAL-1 was a 1MW laser, and destroyed its targets (ICBMs) by heating the target until its fuel tanks ruptured - it didn't destroy the target in the traditional sci-fi sense of directed energy weapons...

    Whether you can use the same approach for enemy aircraft, tanks etc remains to be seen - it will probably be more likely that such targets need an ablative weapon to be destroyed, as jet fuel can be heated considerably more than the pressurised tanks on an ICBM.

    The YAL-1 carried enough fuel for 20 shots at 1MW strength, and it needed a Boeing 747 to carry it, so the summaries "thousands of shots using a single gallon of jet fuel" sounds a little ... optimistic when you consider the energy densities in play.

  4. Re:Pew Pew Pew by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not only that, but this is immensely useful in annoying enemy cats