Laser weapon truck can shoot down mortar rounds

Boeing and the US Army have developed such a weapon, a laser mounted on a custom Oshkosh military truck. It’s called the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator or HEL MD for short, which is probably an appropriate name given its capability.

The fully drivable vehicle was put to the test late last year at a desert test base in White Sands, New Mexico. According to the US Army, the 10kW weapon shot down 90 incoming mortar rounds and up to six unmanned drones during the six-week test.

HEL MD program manager Terry Bauer told America’s ABC that the laser weapon did extremely well in the tests. "We had no thoughts that this 10-kilowatt would be as successful in doing that as it has been," he says.

The HEL MD system is a defensive weapon that could be deployed quickly to many different regions thanks to the fact it is installed on the Oshkosh LVSR truck, an eight wheeler with a 448kW (600hp) diesel that can haul 16 tonnes in extreme off-road conditions. It uses a radar system mounted next to the laser to help the system lock in on enemy drones or artillery.

In a video of the test the laser is shown pointing at a drone, flying until smoke and fire appear. Seconds later, the drone slams into the ground. Footage also shows the same laser causing a mortar shell to burn up in mid air and not explode when it hits the ground. Bauer tells ABC: "We turn it into rock basically."

Unlike Hollywood laser weapons, this laser is not visible. The test weapon has 10kW of power, but the Army and Boeing are working on one with ten times the power that could even be used on jet aircraft and faster missiles.