DARPA working on Star Wars-style lasers for fighter jets

Soon, fighter aircraft could be zapping enemy aircraft with lasers just like in the film "Star Wars," a tech site reported.

 

A report on tech site Mashable said the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) aims to test the technology as early as 2014.

 

"DARPA and General Atomics announced they finished working on the laser turrets in 2012, and will now start integrating them on bomber and combat planes, with a goal of starting to test the technology in 2014," it said.

 

The program, dubbed HELLADS (High Eenergy Liquid Laser Area Defense System), involves liquid-cooled, solid-state laser weapons.

 

Mashable said DARPA, which had been working on the project since 2008, aims to have laser turrets light enough to be mounted on planes.

 

Yet, the lasers will be pwoerful enough to take down surface-to-air missiles or rockets with high-energy laser beams.

 

An article on DARPA's website said high-powered lasers can address the threat of enemy surface-to-air threats to manned and unmanned aircraft.

 

"Laser weapon systems provide additional capability for offensive missions as well—adding precise targeting with low probability of collateral damage.  For consideration as a weapon system on today’s air assets though, these laser weapon systems must be lighter and more compact than the state-of-the-art has produced," it said.

 

It added the HELLADS program aims to develop a 150-kw laser weapon system that is 10 times smaller and lighter than current lasers of similar power. — TJD, GMA News