U.S. Army balks at sending laser weapon to Iraq

U.S. Army officials so far have balked at deploying an experimental laser weapon to guard against insurgents' mortar and rocket fire in Iraq, the system's builder said Wednesday.

"We've talked to them about it," said Art Stephenson, a vice president at Northrop Grumman Corp., which built the Tactical High-Energy Laser, or THEL.

THEL, a short-range air defense system made up of several components, is the laser weapon closest to possible use in the field. It ties an advanced radar that detects and tracks incoming rockets to a chemically-generated high-power beam that destroys them. The system's development was jointly funded by the U.S. Army and the Israeli Ministry of Defense.

Army officers had lots of questions about logistics and safety, Stephenson told reporters at a Northrop briefing titled "Directed Energy: Out of the Lab -- Onto the Battlefield."

"And there are answers to all those questions that alleviate those concerns," he said. "It's up to the military to decide how they want to use this capability."

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050504/pl_nm/arms_iraq_laser_dc

want Arabs to capture one in Iraq. This is sort of like the proximity fuse in World War II, which for a while was only allowed to be used over water where a dud could not be recovered and reverse engineered.

Using it in Iraq would only show how much of a waste of money it was.

Just like the Patriot missile, which had something like a 98% failure contact rate.

Next, they will be vaporizing enemy bullets on the fly.

On edit - it might be effective at blinding innocent civilians and soldiers though.

...if this is the "white world" version of the technology, I shudder to think of what's actually out there that doesn't have the PR.

I doubt it's a security concern; it's gotten so much intentional press in the last five years, it can't possibly be cutting edge. :shrug:

Because probably they would capture one, sooner or later, if they were in wide use.