The Tactical High-Energy Laser , or THEL , was a laser developed for military use, also known as the Nautilus laser system . The mobile version is the Mobile Tactical High-Energy Laser , or MTHEL . In 1996, the United States and Israel entered into an agreement to produce a cooperative THEL called the Demonstrator, which would utilize deuterium fluoride chemical laser technologies. In 2000 and 2001, THEL shot down 28 Katyusha artillery rockets and five artillery shells . On November 4, 2002, THEL shot down an incoming artillery shell. The prototype weapon was roughly the size of six city buses, made up of modules that held a command center, radar and a telescope for tracking targets, the chemical laser itself, fuel and reagent tanks, and a rotating mirror to reflect its beam toward speeding targets. It was discontinued in 2005.
12-669: On July 18, 1996, the United States and Israel entered into an agreement to produce a cooperative Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL), called the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrator, which would utilize deuterium fluoride chemical laser technologies. Primary among the four contractors awarded the project on September 30, 1996 was Northrop Grumman (formerly TRW ). THEL conducted test firing in FY1998, and Initial Operating Capability (IOC)
24-610: A single semi trailer size. However, doing this while maintaining the original performance characteristics is difficult. Furthermore, the Israeli government, which had been providing significant funding, decreased their financial support in 2004, postponing the IOC date to at least 2010. In 2000 and 2001 THEL shot down 28 Katyusha artillery rockets and five artillery shells . On November 4, 2002, THEL shot down an incoming artillery shell. A mobile version completed successful testing. During
36-585: A success and called for its implementation. However, in 2005, the US and Israel decided to discontinue developing the THEL after the project budget had surpassed $ 300 million. The decision came as a result of "its bulkiness, high costs and poor anticipated results on the battlefield." During the 2006 Lebanon War , Ben Yisrael, currently the chairman of the Israeli Space Agency , renewed his calls to implement
48-641: A test conducted on August 24, 2004 the system successfully shot down multiple mortar rounds. The test represented actual mortar threat scenarios. Targets were intercepted by the THEL testbed and destroyed. Both single mortar rounds and salvo were tested. Many military experts, such as the former head of the Administration for the Development of Weapons and the Technological Industry , Aluf Yitzhak Ben Yisrael , considered THEL to be
60-465: Is a directed energy weapon developed by the US Navy. It is a deuterium fluoride laser , a type of chemical laser . The MIRACL laser first became operational in 1980. It can produce over a megawatt of output for up to 70 seconds, making it the most powerful continuous wave (CW) laser in the US. Its original goal was to be able to track and destroy anti-ship cruise missiles, but in later years it
72-404: Is absorbed by the atmosphere, effectively attenuating the beam and reducing its reach, unless used in a vacuum environment. However, when deuterium is used instead of hydrogen, the deuterium fluoride lases at the wavelength of about 3.8 μm. This makes the deuterium fluoride laser usable for terrestrial operations. The deuterium fluoride laser constructionally resembles a rocket engine. In
84-672: The optical resonator region of the laser. Deuterium fluoride lasers have found military applications: the MIRACL laser, the Pulsed energy projectile anti-personnel weapon, and the Tactical High Energy Laser are of the deuterium fluoride type. An Argentine-American physicist and accused spy, Leonardo Mascheroni , has proposed the idea of using hydrogen fluoride lasers to produce nuclear fusion . MIRACL MIRACL , or Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser ,
96-441: The THEL against high-trajectory fire. In 2007, Ehud Barak requested to reconsider project Skyguard (the next phase of THEL) in order to fight Qassam attacks . Deuterium fluoride laser The hydrogen fluoride laser is an infrared chemical laser . It is capable of delivering continuous output power in the megawatt range. Hydrogen fluoride lasers operate at the wavelength of 2.7–2.9 μm . This wavelength
108-439: The combustion chamber, ethylene is burned in nitrogen trifluoride . This reaction produces free excited fluorine radicals . Just after the nozzle, the mixture of helium and hydrogen or deuterium gas is injected to the exhaust stream; the hydrogen or deuterium reacts with the fluorine radicals, producing excited molecules of deuterium fluoride or hydrogen fluoride. The excited molecules then undergo stimulated emission in
120-454: The resonator is about 21 by 3 cm (8.3 by 1.2 in) wide. The beam is then reshaped to a 14 cm × 14 cm (5.5 in × 5.5 in) square. Amid much controversy in October 1997, MIRACL was tested against MSTI-3 , a US Air Force satellite at the end of its original mission in orbit at a distance of 432 km (268 mi). MIRACL failed during the test and
132-510: Was planned in FY1999. However, this was significantly delayed due to reorienting the project as a mobile, not fixed, design, called Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL). The original fixed location design eliminates most weight, size and power restrictions, but is not compatible with the fluid, mobile nature of modern combat. The initial MTHEL goal was a mobile version the size of three large semi trailers. Ideally it would be further downsized to
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#1732797523246144-625: Was used to test phenomenologies associated with national anti-ballistic and anti-satellite laser weapons. Originally tested at a contractor facility in California, as of the later 1990s and early 2000s, it was located at the former MAR-1 facility ( 32°37′55″N 106°19′55″W / 32.632°N 106.332°W / 32.632; -106.332 ) in the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The beam size in
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