Boeing: We zapped a UAV with a laser

There's still a lot of blue sky in Boeing's plans for directed-energy weapons like the Laser Avenger.

(Credit: Boeing)

Updated 2:40 p.m. with details on how the laser damaged the UAV and on the Laser Avenger's targeting system.

Boeing is seeing a glimmer of progress in its work toward fielding laser weapons.

The defense industry giant on Monday said tests of its Laser Avenger system in December marked "the first time a combat vehicle has used a laser to shoot down a UAV," or unmanned aerial vehicle. In the testing, the Humvee-mounted Laser Avenger located and tracked three small UAVs in flight over the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and knocked one of the drone aircraft out of the sky.

Boeing didn't go into much detail about the shoot-down. In response to a query by CNET News, it did say this much about the strike by the the kilowatt-class laser: "A hole was burned in a critical flight control element of the UAV, rendering the aircraft unflyable."

While decades of Hollywood imagery may conjure up a vision of a target disintegrating in a sparkle of light, the actual workings of the laser beam are probably more prosaic. For instance, the beam from Boeing's much, much larger Airborne Laser, which is intended to disable long-range missiles in flight, uses heat to create a weak spot on the skin of the missile, causing it to rupture in flight. Boeing hopes to conduct the first aerial shoot-down test with the much-delayed 747-based Airborne Laser later this year.

In tests in 2007, the Laser Avenger "neutralized" improvised explosive devices (IEDs) like those that have been a deadly threat in Iraq, along with other unexploded munitions.

Those types of targets don't move, so the ability to track and zap a small aircraft in flight is clearly a step forward for directed-energy weapons. But testing on a missile range is still a far cry from effective use on the battlefield, where military units may have to fire on the move against multiple targets approaching through cluttered airspace.

It's not clear how long the laser beam has to be locked on a target such as a UAV before it can cause sufficient damage, or how well the beam can be corrected to deal with dust and other atmospheric disturbances.

Here's how the targeting system works, according to the company (FLIR stands for "forward-looking infrared"):

The laser system is completely integrated to the Avenger turret and works independently of on-board wide field of view camera/FLIR systems. The laser system can work together with on-board wide field of view camera/FLIR systems and slew-to-cue fire control system of the Avenger turret.

Once a target has been sighted, the laser system will "zoom in" on the target and use advanced UAV tracking algorithms to acquire and track the target even in heavy background clutter. Only after positive identification will it fire the high energy laser.

Boeing is pitching the Laser Avenger--and these are Boeing's own words--as a defense against UAVs "like those that increasingly threaten U.S. troops deployed in war zones." In the near term, of course, it's exactly the opposite--UAVs such as the Predator from General Atomics and Boeing's ScanEagle are a boon to U.S. troops and represent a distinct tactical advantage for U.S. forces against al-Qaeda and other foes. The MQ-1 Predator, in particular, has been very successful as both a reconnaissance tool and a weapons platform.

The Boeing-funded Laser Avenger is based on the existing Avenger platform, which carries more traditional "kinetic" weapons, including Stinger antiaircraft missiles and a .50-caliber machine gun.

[mattharms]

Please tell me these things can be defeated by some kind of beefed-up mirrors. Because that would just be hilarious.

[timber2005]

Although they probably could reflect the light energy, i'm not sure the heat energy would be reflected which is what is causing the burns.

[thelemurking]

LOL - I always thought it would be hilarious to see a Stormtrooper just pop out in mirror / chrome armor and just rampage against the rebels because their lasers just bounced off him :)

[911junkie]

Real Genius.

[basraw]

COol - like Transfomers! or GI JOE!

[expatincebu]

How many billions of tax payers dollars were wasted on this crap? All this represents is a welfare program for Boeing. Isn't anyone else sick of their government spending one trillion dollars a year on a giant bloated useless military welfare machine?

[ckurowic]

Wasted? Useless? Go to a country with a weak military and see how life is.

[CNET editors' note: Prohibited content deleted.]

[expatincebu]

10 trillion dollars in debt you are, with three trillion more to be added this year. Most of this debt is owed to countries that produce things and have very little military! Guess what, they are going to stop lending you money. So now you will have to just print it up, meaning runaway inflation.

The military has bankrupted the nation, just as it did Britain, and France, and Russia, and Rome, and every other empire. I do live in a country with a small military. I moved here to stop paying taxes to support morons in green killing women and children for corporate profit. My lifestyle is 100% better.

You obviously know absolutely nothing, or you are one of those Defense Department propaganda posters I read about last week.

[Everlovin G]

@expatincebu

"I do live in a country with a small military. I moved here to stop paying taxes to support morons in green killing women and children for corporate profit. My lifestyle is 100% better."

So happy for you and your "lifestyle," quitter. Don't bother coming back.

[Jon Skillings]

Boeing says that it's paying for the Laser Avenger out of pocket. On the other hand, it is taking government money for other directed-energy projects including the Airborne Laser and the truck-based High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator.

[expatincebu]

Quitter? LOL! You described yourself. You sit there selling yourself and your children and grandchildren into slavery willingly.

It is quite sad but predictable. Write a post exposing this waste of money and you get zero replies that can defend it at all, just insults and empty rhetoric. Sheep marching happily to the slaughter.

[Tui Pohutukawa]

expatincebu, you've got it right.

"Sheep marching happily to the slaughter."

[Endbringer]

So the greatest military machine on the planet is useless? You're a moron. We got to be the greatest nation in the history of the world because others are afraid to attack us. How's that happen?

Our entire economy is estimated at $14 trillion dollars. The next highest is Japan with $4.4 trillion. Our defense budget is around $500 billion a year. This new "stimulus" package is more than we spend on the military. So go back to your pathetic country that uses the US military as it's protection and sip your pina collada.

[Heebee Jeebies]

This is hardly a waste of time or money. Once perfectly we could see such systems on commercial airliners. In the advent that the war on terror doesn't get any better it would be nice to have commercial jets that could defend themselves.

Robert

expatincebu is SO proud of his lifestyle that he.... ooppps.... forgot to brag about
where he is living. wonder why?

if it's Cebu, Phillipines, good luck making the argument that the standard of living is better there than the US.
perhaps you're one of those expats who moves to a developing country to hire a maid, chef, and driver.

[egghead1619]

This isn't a waste. Actually it kind of reminds me of the science project I did back in high school 13 or so years ago. I did some experimentation on the color selectivity of an argon laser utilizing colored balloons inside clear ones. Since the laser had only 105mW of power and was tuned to around 490nm, the laser passed through the clear, non-pigmented outer balloon and burned a hole in the interior, pigmented balloons that did not reflect the wavelength. Granted the hole took close to 5 minutes to form, but the premise was valid enough that I had visits to my table and congratulations from all branches of the armed forces and even received a top prize from the Navy.

Now, scale my experiment up to a multi-kilowatt laser and tune it to the near ultraviolet or infrared range and you have a devastatingly powerful beam that is hard to reflect and can quickly destroy whatever is struck. In case you think this is science fiction, look at the current lasers being used in eye surgery. Those lasers are designed to literally vaporize tissue in bursts as short as 50 femtoseconds or milionths of a nanosecond.

[Magicland]

"a defense against UAVs "like those that increasingly threaten U.S. troops deployed in war zones." Who exactly are we fighting who's armed with UAV's? I'm pretty sure the Taliban don't have any. The insurgents in Iraq don't have any. Who's increasingly threatening our troops with them? Are we at war with Britain or Canada and nobody told us? Our troops are threatened by IED's and suicide bombers, not UAV's...

[grriffin]

Well now that Boeing sold us a way to shoot them down they can start selling them to our enemies silly. They must have sold a few advance copies just to prime the market which accounts for the "increasingly".

[zmonster]

Certain people in the defense establishment believe that the earth is threatened by hostile extraterrestrial vehicles. Some of them 'manned', some of them unmanned. This may sound like science fiction, but it is not. It is serious business.

See:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/ufos/article2171863.ece

and:

http://narcap.org

[Jon Skillings]

Magicland - Yeah, that was an odd claim, but that's exactly what Boeing said - twice! - in their press release. For the time being, certainly, UAVs aren't much of a threat, if any at all, to U.S. troops. But I'm sure there are folks in the Pentagon worrying about what happens if and when opposing forces start flying small remote-controlled aircraft with cameras and explosives aboard.

[rapier1]

Military procurement and development has a very long life cycle. As such you can't just focus on any current enemies but potential adversaries. This would include actual countries with budgets and the ability to develop and launch their own UAVs, cruise missiles, and the like.

[drnickm]

You're forgetting about the friendly-fire problem. Some teenager in Arizona handling the UAV doesn't care what he shoots, as long as he shoots something............

[zmonster]

The US military is developing these weapons to use against hostile extraterrestrial spacecraft. And no, that is not a joke.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/ufos/article2171863.ece

[Thomas T]

Hostile UFOs? Misinformation. Go to theyflydotcom and discover whats going on outside of maistrean-controlled-twisted news..

[Eludium-Q36]

This is defense contractor propaganda. Their "test" was akin to shooting a paper airplane (uav) from a suspended pole in the air. It is total disinformation that their capability is ANYWHERE near what you see in scifi movies. We are many DECADEs away from achieving this capability, it's just a bunch of scare-talk to intimidate adverseries, but it's totally bogus.

[willdryden]

@Eludium-Q36 - you are wrong. They are downgrading what the lasers can actually do. I saw one in action in 1994. I have seen them deployed and I have the National stock number for a laser that will fit in the nose of an F16 in one of my files.

[asmmp]

Wow! Where can I buy one. I want to zap some of those jackass redlight cams!!

[thelemurking]

I think it would be much much cheaper just to use a can of spray paint to render those red light cames useless ;)

[mickmcc]

Here's a crazy thought ....What if it was deemed un-patriotic to profit from the sale of equipment used by your country in a time of war ?

I mean isn't it a soldiers duty to defend his country and forfeit his life if needed. So why do Corporations risk nothing in a time of war and reap incredible profits .But the soldier and his family are expected to give their life's for their country at no cost.
Maybe if in a time of war Corporations where by law to aid their country by giving at no profit meaning cost only the products of their factories .And in peace time its business as usual .
Why should shareholder give nothing and the patriotic troops risk everything...so how about the shareholders risk sometime to defend the country that in peace time generates their dividends ?
I think this would eliminate 99% of wars the instant this law was passed.
Any body willing to comment on the ethics of profiting from war ? And the morality of profiting from war ?

[TimeTraveler2000]

Interesting idea... Only one problem I see though. The US is always at war. I can't recall a time when the US hasn't been practicing its philosophy of might is right. But then on the other hand this idea really does nothing as the US congress has not officially declared war since 1942. So all these war profiteers would still sit back and collect US taxpayer dollars.

Its also interesting that the only things the US has declared War on, have only gotten worse. The War On Drugs, more drugs on our streets. The War On Illiteracy, the more illiterate people there are. The War On Terror, more terror related attacks. It would be nice if there were wars on morals, ethics, and integrity. Wars on low taxes, wars on common sense, and I'm sure there's a whole lot more we can wage war on to bring more of it about.

[mickmcc]

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY!
" Enemies are necessary for the wheels of the U.S. military machine to turn. "-- John Stockwell, former CIA official and author

[dburr13]

Pandora's box will soon be wide open...It seems inevitable that unscrupulous organizations will gain access to this technology...And then we'll have something new to worry about.

[kaine77]

Procurement is rarely about the current war. The development cycle of technologies like these is simply too slow. However, the Iranians and the Chinese both have been interested in UAVs, but it's far more cost-effective to track them with our superior radar systems (don't tell me fire-finder can't find UAVs) and knock them out of the sky with SAMs.