HELLADS set for live fire testing against military targets

The High-Energy Liquid Laser (HELLADS) has completed the US government acceptance test procedure, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) announced on 21 May. It will now undergo live fire testing against military targets at the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), New Mexico.

HELLADS is a Demonstrator Laser Weapon System (DLWS) designed to demonstrate a tactical laser weapon for counter-missile, counter-air and counter-rocket, artillery and mortar applications.

The laser has been developed to create a new approach to electrically-powered lasers with sufficiently low size, weight, and power consumption to enable deployment on a number of tactical platforms.

The 150kW class HELLADS laser was developed through a series of stage/gate phases beginning with a physics demonstration and progressing through a series of laser demonstrators at increasing power levels. At each stage, DARPA required beam quality, laser power, efficiency, size, and weight objectives to be demonstrated.

Linden Blue, CEO, GA-ASI, said: 'HELLADS represents a new generation of tactical weapon systems with the potential to revolutionise sovereign defences and provide a significant tactical advantage to our war-fighters.

'It is remarkable to see high-power laser technology mature into an extremely compact weapons system and be deployed for field tests. It will be even more remarkable to witness the impact that this will have on US defence capability.'