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Farnborough, UK (SPX) Jul 20, 2010 Raytheon and a U.S. Navy team used a combined-beam fiber laser to shoot down four unmanned aerial vehicles in flight during an over-the-water engagement. The UAV targets were engaged and destroyed using the Navy's Laser Weapon System guided by Raytheon's Phalanx Close-in Weapon System sensor suite. LaWS is made up of six industrial-use lasers that simultaneously focus on the target. "These engagements validate the operational viability of the Phalanx-LaWS combination at sea," said Dr. Taylor W. Lawrence, president of Raytheon Missile Systems. "The Raytheon- Navy team demonstrated the systems' capability to detect, track, engage and defeat dynamic targets at tactically significant ranges in a maritime environment." For the test, the LaWS was mounted on a stable platform close to the Phalanx Block 1B mount. The Phalanx operator used the Block 1B's surface mode to perform electro-optical tracking and the system's radio frequency sensors to provide range data to the LaWS. When the Phalanx acquired the UAV, the LaWS destroyed the target. "The Raytheon-Navy team is moving directed energy solutions toward utility in the battlespace to provide warfighters with speed-of-light protection," said Lawrence. "This shoot down leverages the significant investment the Navy has made in the Phalanx Close-in Weapon System and extends its combat-proven leadership in close-in defense systems."
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![]() ![]() Pittsburgh PA (SPX) Jun 28, 2010 Boeing took delivery of the beam director assembly for the U.S. Army's High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator (HEL TD) program, moving the system another step closer to its 2011 testing schedule. Integrated Optical Systems Brashear, a division of L-3 Communications, delivered the component in Pittsburgh for transport to Boeing's facility in Albuquerque, N.M., where it will be mated to t ... read more |
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