You may have seen a post we did last year about claims by China’s state-controlled news agency Xinhua that a Chinese defence agency had developed a laser weapon capable of destroying drones up to a distance of 1.2 miles (1.8 km) away. Apparently the China Academy of Engineering Physics, a government defence agency, designed the weapon to counter asymmetric threats posed by the increasingly proliferation of small UAV around the world. According to Xinhua the laser system can find, target and destroy a drone flying up to 112 mph and at an altitude of less than 1,600 feet in just five seconds. The agency provided no images or video to back up their claims.
Well, the Chinese are not the only ones talking about countering asymmetric threats with laser weapons. Rheinmetall Defence demonstrated the capabilities of its high-energy laser effector (HEL) in live testing at Ochsenboden, Switzerland against drones and mortar rounds, and unlike the Chinese they’ve provided video and pictures. Drones equipped with explosive charges or chemicals are a hidden danger for existing air defence systems, their small size and slow speeds make them difficult to detect and destroy. Small UAV are also relatively inexpensive and easy to conceal, with recent reports suggesting they could be used by terrorists groups to attack civilian targets such as international sporting events, or other large public gatherings, therefore governments are on the look out for effective defensive systems that can neutralize them.
Rheinmetall’s Air Defence HEL effector features a 30 kW laser cannon that was shown destroying five 82 mm mortar rounds at a distance of 0.6 miles (1 km) and also shot down several jet-powered UAVs.
Watch the video below to see the HEL system in action.
Fuente: http://trends.directindustry.com
