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Last year, Raytheon tested its 20 kilowatt, solid state laser against 60 mm mortar rounds at 50 meters in an 80-knot wind with a 4-inch baseball-sized beam as part of its Laser Area Defense System (LADS). And it worked! Check it out...(and don't blink, or you'll miss it)Right now the company is doing similar tests out at White Sands. But this time, the LADS laser is up to 50 kilowatts and the mortar rounds are actually moving. Mike Booen, who heads up Raytheon's directed energy effort, told me he expects that once the "dust settles, we'll have a system that has immediate military utility." He wouldn't go into specifics about the tests, but did say the company would wrap up testing and start looking at the data within this quarter.
Last year, Raytheon tested its 20 kilowatt, solid state laser against 60 mm mortar rounds at 50 meters in an 80-knot wind with a 4-inch baseball-sized beam as part of its Laser Area Defense System (LADS). And it worked! Check it out...(and don't blink, or you'll miss it)
Right now the company is doing similar tests out at White Sands. But this time, the LADS laser is up to 50 kilowatts and the mortar rounds are actually moving. Mike Booen, who heads up Raytheon's directed energy effort, told me he expects that once the "dust settles, we'll have a system that has immediate military utility." He wouldn't go into specifics about the tests, but did say the company would wrap up testing and start looking at the data within this quarter.
Tags: ar99, Raytheon, LADS