Boeing HEL MD 10 KW Laser successfully Tested shooting down Mortar Rounds and Drones

“We had no thoughts that this 10-kilowatt would be as successful in doing that as it has been”

US Army Project Manager for the Laser program Terry Bauer, commenting on the 6 week military exercise to test the effectiveness of Boeing's HEL MD HEMTT Mounted Laser

Last year had an interesting development that I’d like to note before January 2014 closes. In November 2013 for about six (6) weeks, the US Army has been putting Boeing HEL MD (High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator), a Truck mounted Solid State Laser that rides atop an 8-wheeled, 500-horsepower Oshkosh HEMTT (Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck), through 6 weeks of testing as stated in “Army Laser weapon KOs Mortar rounds”, published December 13, 2013 10:23 AM PST by Jonathan Skillings, CNET News.  

Now it’s reached up to the point of Army Testing, with its future potential slowly being realized once it scales up from a 10 kW Laser that’s good for small short range objects at 5 km away to a 100 kW Laser that can take down bigger objects further away as noted in “Army’s New Laser Weapon Can Shoot Down Mortars and Drones”, published Dec 21, 2013 7:00am By Luis Martinez, ABC News.

I took interest as I’d done a blog article on the same system by Boeing, but back then it was called the HEL TD (High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator) as described in my blog article entitled “Boeing and the HELTD Direct Energy Weapon - StarShip Troopers Death Star in Revenge of the Sith”, a sort of prototype, if you may and precursor to the HEL MD.

At the time I’d suggested the need to have an Alternative power Source, such as a Portable Nuclear Fusion Reactor to power the Laser along with Hydrogen Fuel Cells in a Range Extender Configuration to drive the Vehicles. Possibly this may have been done to the HEL TD, which may be the reason Boeing now has the HEL MD!

This therefore is the further development of Directed Energy Weapons which has great potential as noted in the article “Boeing Trucks ahead with 8-wheeling Laser weapon”, published October 6, 2012 12:00 PM PDT by Jonathan Skillings, CNET News. A project that started back in 2011 and has run up a tab of nearly US$11 million since then, cheap by US Army standards!

The benefits are obvious:

1.      Reduced need for the US Army and Navy to carry heavy ordinance rounds by using a Directed Energy Weapon approach that just requires a lot of Electrical Energy.

2.      Ability to shoot down an enemy at literally the speed of light

3.      Potential to develop weapons that are both Lethal and non-lethal in one design i.e. it can both destroy and disable simply by lowering the beam intensity

4.      Stealth of the weapon, as it leaves no heat signature due to fact it’s a focused beam of Infrared Light

5.      Portability of design, as with improving Battery and Generator Technology, it’ll soon reach the point of hand-held variants, eventually replacing Rifles, Assault Weapons and even sidearms

Boeing’s HEL MD did well – Portability and stability under Fire are Burning Issues

During that time, it took out 90 objects, mainly 60 mm Mortar Rounds and Drones. Protecting troops against Mortar rounds is of particular importance to the US Army, as they are small and fired from shoulder launched or grounds placed Weapons and are hard to guard against. The idea that the US Army seems to be aiming for is an automated gantry of portable Mobile Truck Lasers that can automatically spot and disable Mortars mid-flight, effectively a virtual shield to protect them as they engage the enemy.

It also disables some drones, albeit it has limitations in terms of the time taken to do so. This is because the HEL MD Laser is no different from the idea of using a lens to focus sunlight to catch wood on fire. The larger the lens, the more energy you have and the further away you can aim but the system become heavier and more unwieldy. Also you have to focus the Laser for a time before the Heat Energy from the Laser has an effect on the object.

In the case of Mortar Rounds, that takes time as they are moving on a closed looping trajectory. Thus the HEL MD uses sophisticated Radar Tracking to predict the path of the Mortar and thus aim the invisible Laser at the Mortar to deliver the knock-out punch, reducing it from an effective round to a flying rock.

Ditto too for Drones, which were easier to target as they’re following a fairly straight line trajectory but may be made of more exotic alloys that require more intense heat. Also they are moving away from the HEL MD, requiring the system to be able to ramp up power to account for this, hence the interest in stepping up the power by a factor of 10 from 10 kW system to a 100 kW system.

Thus portability of this system is key; expect to see the development of Jeep mounted versions and eventually Backpack mounted Versions as the US Army goes Directed Energy Weapon to reduce the cost of making bulky ammunition, all of which futuristic power packs would replace.

Still there are issues as it relates to their effectiveness under bad weather conditions. This is also the case with the LAWS (Laser Weapon System) that was developed by Raytheon for about US$40 million was recently tested by the US Navy at sea onboard the USS Ponce in April 2013 as stated in “Navy's New Laser Weapon Blasts Bad Guys From Air, Sea”, published April 8, 2013 By LUIS MARTINEZ, ABC News.

This is similar to the Centurion System developed by Raytheon in Iraq and later modified as a system codenamed Phalanx for Destroyers as stated in my blog article entitled “Telecom Providers and Raytheon - Star Wars on the high Seas”. And yes, it still apparently has the same olds problems; it apparently can’t stand seawater and a rocking ship! More work to be done then Engineers!

Equally of concern too is the Cool Down time of this system, as it has to cool down for awhile before firing again to avoid overheating, being as it’s a solid State Laser. Recharging the Laser is also an issue, as in the field, a portable Generator, possibly a heavy duty Hydrogen Fuel Cell may have to augment Battery Packs to reduce the Recharge Time after firing a predetermined number of shots.

Given the glacial pace of development of Directed Energy weapons, expect another update on this in the next five years, as these issues are not as easy to solve as they sound. But clearly Directed Energy Weapons, due to their cost-effectiveness to develop based on the small budgets numbers involved, are the low-cost future modern Warfare Weapons of choice as noted in “How the Army’s recent successful Laser test could change the future of warfare”, published Dec 21, 2013 By Eric Pfeiffer, Yahoo News.