If you thought laser weapons were science fiction, think again. At
www.trw.com/thel, there鈥檚 the first evidence that they are becoming a reality:
watch the US Tactical High Energy Laser detonate the warhead of a Katyusha
rocket in flight. The rocket nose glows briefly and then explodes鈥攙iewed
in three short clips taken from different cameras. The US Army and the Israeli
Ministry of Defense paid weapons contractor TRW $200 million to build the
chemical laser, in which atomic fluorine reacts with the heavy hydrogen isotope
deuterium to generate a powerful infrared beam that can pass through the
atmosphere.
Israel wants lasers to blast Hezbollah missiles apart, since, as the US
Army says at www.smdc.army. mil/FactSheets/THEL.html, firing artillery shells at
rocket launchers 鈥渕ay not be an option in densely populated areas鈥�. But the
system itself is quite a target, amounting to several truckloads of hardware
(www.trw. com/seg/sats/THEL.html). What the army really wants are more mobile
solid-state lasers.
Meanwhile, the US Air Force has hired Boeing, TRW and Lockheed Martin to
pack a chemical oxygen iodine laser into a Boeing 747, in an attempt to zap
ballistic missiles as they leave hostile countries. At the project鈥檚 home page
www.airbornelaser.com, you can make the jet鈥檚 laser turret track your mouse as
you move it鈥攂ut the pictures of futuristic laser battles look as unlikely
as the daydreams pursued under Ronald Reagan鈥檚 Strategic Defense Initiative, aka
Star Wars. ABL demos are slated for 2003, it says here.
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Space is the next frontier鈥攁nd at www.sbl.losangeles.af.mil, the Air
Force shows a second-by-second countdown to the planned launch of an
experimental space-based laser. The target date is some time in 2012, yet it鈥檚
already running just a little late: the concept dates from 1977, when a guy
called Leonid Brezhnev ruled a place called the Soviet Union.
