Page 17

Frontiers October 2015 Issue

This drone toast or HEL MD, that Boeing built and October 2015 17 demonstrated last year, the compact system is significantly smaller, lighter and more portable. The system weighs only about 650 pounds (300 kilograms) and can be carried in four suitcasesize containers. And it can be set up in a matter of minutes by a couple of soldiers or technicians. “There aren’t a lot of ways to deal with UAV threats right now, but this is a very low-cost way,” said David DeYoung, director, Boeing Laser & Electro-Optical Systems. “To engage the UAV with a laser, the cost of the shot is basically the electricity to drive the laser. You’re not firing a missile with all the logistics trail and cost of the missile or firing bullets where you have to worry about where they fall.” While the exercise in California marked the first time the Compact Laser Weapon System shot down a free-flying unmanned aerial vehicle, it was not Neal’s first time in the operator’s seat. He and others on the Laser & Electro-Optical Systems team had demonstrated the system to the U.S. Marine Corps earlier this year. And the team had damaged a tethered UAV in the rugged terrain of West Virginia during Boeing testing in July. “We knew what the system was capable of, and we were confident in the system, but we had never taken a shot at an airborne drone,” Neal said. “We just had to trust the science, and of miles (10 miles is 16 kilometers). The laser mounts on a tripod, much like a camera, and the motor, or gimbal, aims the laser in any direction. The silent, invisible laser beam travels at the speed of light, hitting the target almost instantly. And the “ammunition” is virtually free—the only cost is the electricity, which can be supplied by a standard 220-volt outlet, a generator or even a battery pack. Boeing has delivered its first prototype to an undisclosed military customer. Neal and his colleagues on the Laser & Electro-Optical Systems team now are refining and testing the second-generation system, based on the customer’s recommendations. Neal said he had always hoped, as a young engineering student, that he could one day help develop technologies to solve problems. “But to be a part of the team developing something that will protect our troops,” he said, “that’s something I never imagined a couple of years ago.” n queena.l.jones@boeing.com Photos: (From top) An unmanned aerial vehicle, which flew along a guide wire for test control, exhibits tail damage after a few seconds of lasing; the Compact Laser Weapon System identifies and tracks targets at significant ranges over rugged terrain. Jeremy Manning | Boeing the beam size was exactly what it should have been.” With the Marines, the team showed the system’s surveillance capabilities during a field exercise, tracking airborne objects such as helicopters and UAVs from miles away, and identifying and locating potential threats. “Sometimes the need may be just identification of the threat, or to track the target and gauge its direction and location, not destroy the target,” explained Jeff Malanify, project engineer. Boeing originally designed the compact system to identify objects on the ground at significant ranges. But a customer asked the company to further evolve it to track moving, airborne objects—and shoot them down once within firing range. The Compact Laser Weapon System includes a battery, a water-cooled chiller, a commercially available fiber laser and an upgraded beam director that weighs about 40 percent less than Boeing’s first model. It can direct a beam with a power of up to 10 kilowatts. That beam can precisely zero in on a target. It can be aimed, for example, to hit only the tail of a UAV and debilitate or destroy its directional control. Once within range, the system can automatically track a target and take over for the human operator. While Boeing is not publicly disclosing the exact ranges for tracking and targeting, the system can track targets at tens


Frontiers October 2015 Issue
To see the actual publication please follow the link above