Laser gunship hits $30 million bulls-eye

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing a new contract worth up to $30 million for the next phase of development on the Advanced Tactical Laser.

The ATL is a C-130H aircraft outfitted with a 12,000-pound high-energy chemical laser module that would be used as a weapon against ground targets. It's the smaller sibling of the Airborne Laser, a highly modified 747 under development that packs a similar weapon but that would be used against ballistic missiles.

The Advanced Tactical Laser will use a rotating ball turret to fire its laser weapon at ground targets.

(Credit: Ed Turner, Boeing)

While the 747-centric ABL is designed to fire its laser through a bulbous nose apparatus, the ATL totes a belly turret reminiscent of the manned versions used in some World War II bombers.

The new Extended User Evaluation contract marks the start of a transition for the ATL, which Boeing has been working on as an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration project. The EUE phase means another round of ground and flight tests, along with "hands-on operation" for the Air Force and other potential users.

Why use a laser when the Air Force already has a wide array of missiles and bombs at its disposal? (The standard gunship variant of the C-130 can already be equipped with 40mm and 105mm cannons.) "Little to no collateral damage," Boeing says, thanks to the laser weapon's "ultra-precision engagement capability." That is, think laser pointer with extreme prejudice.

In addition, the laser would presumably strike more or less silently--no thump-thump-thump or rat-a-tat-tat. (Note, 11:30 a.m. PDT: A reader writes in to say that high-power lasers operating in the atmosphere are anything but silent, perhaps because of ionizing the air - a la lightning.)

For use against missiles, mortars, and the like, laser weapons are intended to heat up and weaken the metal skin of the projectile, causing it to rupture while in flight. Against ground targets, the ATL could, say, zap fuel tanks or even vehicle tires--if it could hold focus long enough.

In a Medill Reports story on the ATL, Northwestern University engineering professor Manijeh Razeghi said there is a range of potential military uses for lasers.

"Lasers can create fires. They can kill," said Ragezhi, who has worked on lasers for the military. "Each (laser) wavelength has some application. Some of them you know about; some of them are classified, and we cannot speak about them."

The National Academies of Science, meanwhile, is raising questions about the overall costs of laser weapons programs, the power requirements for the systems, and just how much collateral damage might actually occur, according to Wired's Danger Room blog.

Two months ago, Boeing said it had completed the first ground test of the entire ATL weapon system, with the laser being fired through the beam control system. At the time, it also said that before the end of 2008, it expected to conduct an in-flight test of the gunship firing at "mission representative" ground targets.

In this week's contract announcement, Boeing did not mention a time frame for an in-flight test, and a company representative could not say whether the test would occur before year's end.

In August, Boeing touted a $36 million contract win to carry on with its work on a truck-mounted laser weapon system, the HEL TD.

[generalripper]

All I want is AC-130's with frickin' laser beams attached to their fuselages!

[gjkezski]

Only real problem with that is the 6 tons taken up by the laser, I have no idea of the volume it takes up. The AC-130 [a WONDERFUL aircraft, take it from a 10yr grunt! ] is pretty well full as it is with the existing weapons, ammo & sighting systems. Maybe if the USAF would pull out of mothballs one of those "Atomic Aircraft" reactors they worked on back in the '50s that were never powerful enough to actually power an aircraft it might actually be enough to power a laser. It did not require a massive cooling system, I think NASA used a descendant of one to power the Lunar Lander for the Apollo program. Rig one up with a bank of capacitors to store the power needed for each shot if the reactor did not provide enough immediate power for each shot. Maybe they could save internal volume by installing the capacitors into containers that could be attached to the hard points normally used for the long-range drop tanks.

How About It Flyboys??

[Michichael]

Yeah high power lasers are anything but silent, as noted in the article - it's not creating a lightning effect, but it will cause ionization and small plasma 'bubbles" in the atmosphere - which, if they don't dissipate immediately (depends on the location where it was fired) could react much like the Northern Lights - particle fluctuation causing dancing lights in the atmosphere in their wakes, but also the heat generated could create small portions in the atmosphere that "pop" like bubble wrap - think rapid fire, small thunderclaps.

So you'd have Flash, pop, and flashes! Fun.

[Scott Gardener]

About fricking time! How long has sci-fi talked about cool-looking laser weapons? For years we've had lasers that sight for other weapons, lasers for gathering meteorological data, and even ones to help with PowerPoint presentations. Heck, my computer has a laser in its mouse and another in its DVD drive. But now, finally, we have lasers that can actually blast stuff!

And, it comes with sparkly ILM-style special effects? What more could a geek want? OK, warp drive and a teleporter, but what else?

[searcherT]

I am a big big fan of the armed services and a tech head too. However I must say the use of a high powered chem laser for ground attack at this point in the game is at the least an act of stupidity and at the far end show nothing but contempt for the American wallet. There are other direct energy weapons that ar smaller and far more powerful with seemingly limitless area for refining and quantum leaps in power capability. a laser depends on the capability to heat a single point and damage through heat build up.. Works now, but what about when some smart ass successfully develops a material with limitless capacity to not allow energy accumulation as heat. then it is useless as a primary weapon. ( why do you think star fleet uses a phaser and tje Dominion use a phased polaron beam.

think before wasting our money or insulting the intellect of the internet citizens