Skyguard defense laser protects humans, kills missiles

Always one to ensure that our soldiers are equipped with the latest and greatest killing tools battlefield technology, military contractor Northrop Grumman has just unveiled a mobile defense system that creates a virtual bubble of protection against flying artillery over anything located within a five kilometer radius. Based on the Tactical High Energy Laser testbed that's been in development since 1996, the so-called Skyguard system employs target-acquisition radar and a deuterium fluoride laser to detect and shoot down a variety of airborne projectiles, including rockets, mortars, and short-range munitions. Northrop is promoting the weapon as a way for countries to defend deployed troops or critical infrastructure such as airports, and not surprisingly, Israel was one of the first foreign nations given a product pitch. Initially the system is said to cost between $150 and $200 million per installation, though mass adoption could see prices plummet to less than $30 million- and someday it may even be affordable enough to install at your very own house, providing the neighborhood kids with some not-so-subtle encouragement to keep their baseballs and frisbees out of your damn yard.

[Via Gizmag and Laser Focus World]

[Dan @ Jul 14th 2006 4:27PM]

So essentially it's missile command

[Heath @ Jul 14th 2006 4:31PM]

Whoa, that picture is great. It's totally Missile Command but real. Let’s hope the guys controlling these things spent a lot of quarters in the retro section of the arcade.

[kp @ Jul 14th 2006 4:33PM]

Looks like South Korea, Israel, Lebanon, Japan, etc.. could use them...

And, what fun! I never thought missile command was real - apparently it is!

[eggzakt @ Jul 14th 2006 4:33PM]

This is neat-o technology, but since I'm not Israeli, I don't think I need it.

[sh @ Jul 14th 2006 4:33PM]

Pretty cool. But if it makes rockets and artillery shells obsolete as a defensive weapon, what could it do as an airborne offensive platform? Also, what would be the max speed and size of the object it can track and hit? Seems like smaller projectiles would probably get through.

[Karl @ Jul 14th 2006 4:37PM]

Havent these generals seen Terminater? I mean skynet, oh I mean skyguard, doenst sound terminater to you.

[Henry @ Jul 14th 2006 4:39PM]

If it can hit an artillery shell, it must be able to hit very small things.

Dunno if it could kill a re-entry vehicle, though. An RV would probably be going way to fast.

[spil @ Jul 14th 2006 4:42PM]

I, For one, welcome our missle-killing laser overlords

[Daniel Bier @ Jul 14th 2006 4:48PM]

Did anyone notice that the missiles appear to be coming from a couple of miles away from the city in the picture? One would think that the occupants there would have greater risks given the proximity of the launch site... Really is designed for Israel, where the enemy is really right around the corner.

[Spyvie @ Jul 14th 2006 5:02PM]

Deuterium fluoride lasers FTW

[Timerider @ Jul 14th 2006 5:03PM]

Haha!
That would be neat if your house was near the outfield of a baseball diamond. Vaporize the baseballs before they smash your windows.

[ab1 @ Jul 14th 2006 5:09PM]

Handy in duck hunting season too... as the fowl will be fried in the sky.. less cooking on the grill perhaps?

[PiNPOiNT @ Jul 14th 2006 5:15PM]

I can't wait for the system to malfunction and think and incoming plane is a missle.

[Whiplash @ Jul 14th 2006 5:18PM]

Alright, who started this whole "I, for one, welcome our... blah, blah, blah... overlords"? It's really getting old.

[Jason @ Jul 14th 2006 5:18PM]

It's only as smart as the people who program it.

[tratch @ Jul 14th 2006 5:20PM]

So it's like from The Simpsons?

[Joe @ Jul 14th 2006 5:23PM]

this is system is being scraped in favor of smaller portable ones, its based on the mobile THEL which was also scrapped becasue of cost/verus use.

and is old news

the Isreali and US Army actually arent funding this, this is a last ditch attempt by Northop-Grumman to find a buyer for this tech. there marketing it to airports becasue you know airports in Ohio have sucided terrorist jetliners threats that need that DHS terrorism money.

SkyGuard 2000 coming soon to STUB'S FIELD Airport, Ohio
paided for by your taxes dollars given by your department of homeland pork spenders.

http://vwt.d2g.com:8081/2006/07/lasers_and_missiles_the_us_and.html

[LittleJoe @ Jul 14th 2006 5:29PM]

So sooner or later all weapons will be pointless as there will be an anti-weapon-weapon for everything.

Back to hand to hand combat! Woo hoo! Time to catch up on those Ramboo movies!

[jfb3 @ Jul 14th 2006 5:29PM]

Whiplash, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashdot_subculture#Welcoming_Our_New_Overlords

[LittleJoe @ Jul 14th 2006 5:30PM]

*Rambo

[spil @ Jul 14th 2006 5:30PM]

Whiplash, that was started on The Simpsons, on the episode where Homer goes to space, opens a bag of chips, is flying around eating the chips, falls into and breaks an experimental ant farm. Meanwhile, the local news station is supposed to be interviewing them and the reporter (Kent Brokman) sees an ant flying very close to the camera, and assumes they have taken over the ship, and therefore earth, and says the infamous (say it with me): "I ,for one, welcome our new giant-ant overlords."

BTW sorry if I annoyed you.

[bliss @ Jul 14th 2006 5:36PM]

jfb3, great find...can't believe there's a wiki for that.

[shmengie @ Jul 14th 2006 6:03PM]

can you say 'skynet'? i know you can...

[Tim @ Jul 14th 2006 6:06PM]

I need a miniature version of this for my window, to keep the insects out.

[Corey Cortez @ Jul 14th 2006 6:09PM]

Funny I think that is the image of Beirut... which is getting bombed right now.... nice timing.

[Totalfixation @ Jul 14th 2006 6:39PM]

You guys done realize the biggest flaw do you? what prevents it from hitting a airplane? and if there is a defense mechanisms that prevents it from hitting airplanes. Then what happens if there is a way to make the defense system think a missile is an airplane? and if someone is going to say encryption, well its just little anything we have now, and its not full proof. so you guys better think about how safe we are.

[Henry @ Jul 14th 2006 7:04PM]

Totalfixation, hopefully it has secondary surveillance radar...

[David Grant @ Jul 14th 2006 7:12PM]

Wonder how many targets it would take to overwhelm it.

[furtim @ Jul 14th 2006 7:52PM]

Yeah, you can tell lots of things from how an object reflects radar. Like whether it's a missile or an airplane, for that matter.

Civilian airliners carry transponders to identify them to air traffic control and have very different radar signatures than military aircraft or missiles anyway. Military aircraft have Identification Friend or Foe systems installed that allow friendly radars to identify and not shoot down friendly aircraft. These fall under the category of Extremely Fucking Secure National Defense Secrets, so if our enemies or terrorists have cracked the system (they haven't) we have a whole fucking ton of stuff to worry about that's a lot more important than some laser system that only fires at missiles.

Never forget that the people who design these systems are smarter than you. And thank God for that.

[Jason @ Jul 14th 2006 7:58PM]

Wasn't the whole point of star-wars in the 80s was a treaty with the USSR that forbade such "ground" based missle defenses?

[Matt Hadder @ Jul 14th 2006 8:12PM]

More expensive toys to prolong the game of war.
I say no more pissing around doing wars half-a$$ed. Either let the nukes fly or scrap em!
$#!T or get off the pot.

[Zap @ Jul 14th 2006 8:18PM]

Better yet: "Go big or go home!"

[DrBuzz0 @ Jul 14th 2006 8:22PM]

I, for one, would love to see even more invested in development of super-laser weapons. I'd love to see this system get deployed. Then I'd love to see a slightly improved system be developed. Then I'd love to see the original system be retired and end up being sold for next to nothing at my local military/government surplus dealer. Then I'd love to buy one and shoot things with it.

[asaf @ Jul 14th 2006 10:11PM]

Nothing really new about this... apart from the sales revancy due to recent events

There has been co-operation in development of a previous version of this system, formerly called Nautilus, between the US DoD and Israel. Costs proved too dear at one point, so Israel abandoned it at the time. Although the latest events may change that.

By the way it works by heating the kinetic or ballistic projectiles, thereby distabelising their flight paths and shattering them mid-air (as I understand: mainly due to mounting air-friction caused by the distablisation at extremely high speeds)

[Michael @ Jul 15th 2006 7:33AM]

Hmm...i will be too old to make use of one of these sweet little things if they ever come to my backyard.

[rtheman @ Jul 15th 2006 9:45AM]

Here in the US, remmeber the recent success in how we were able to hit down missiles off the coast of Japan? Anyhow, good job with those guys at MDA, but long way to go and I have my 3 or 5 cents of opinion there...

Anyhow, "laser system" hey... How about a defensive move such as CarbonNano Mirror on all missiles. Put some smarts in it like the one MIT is creating (http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/14/mit-researchers-create-photo-detecting-fibers/) and I can now reflect it back to its orgin!

Here's my free consultation to the MDA guys...

[apt @ Jul 15th 2006 2:44PM]

"Turn the key, sir

TURN THE KEY SIR :pulls out pistol:"

[phreak511 @ Jul 15th 2006 5:47PM]

"This is neat-o technology, but since I'm not Israeli, I don't think I need it."

Well, if you live in L.A., you just might...

North Korea, anyone?

[Jalnor @ Jul 15th 2006 6:10PM]

Hmm... lots and lots of opinions here, some more educated than others. But the one thing I'm seeing again and again is the stream of guys who really know nothing about real lasers - these things, having that level of power that they can cause missiles to burn up or detonate early, have battery packs the size of double-decker buses... ain't gonna do much fun-shooting with those. As for Skynet, that was an internet-enabled AI that was assigned control of all military systems. They already have a real programme (ie. it's a set of rules, since no-one actually knows how to make AI) that runs missile defences, it made mistakes and shot down a number of British fighters during Iraq there. So a better version of that (one that doesn't get IFFs confused) would be fool-proof or near enough. I'm not saying it's all great, but developing a purely defensive weapon like that's a much better option than trying to point a nuke at Bin Liner, isn't it?

[Bob Rutherford @ Jul 16th 2006 7:33AM]

Why don't we try and sort out the problems in the world by talking and resolving issues and problems, instead of developing weapons?

Have a quiet chat with Kim Jung-Il and tell him he's a complete ar5e, and to cut it out. Then tell the Israelis and Palestinians that nothing will EVER happen while they're shooting each other, and to act like intelligent grown-ups instead of 2 year olds.

Sad to see so much money being spent on weapons rather than on helping people survive.

[Jimmy @ Jul 16th 2006 4:38PM]

will this fry any birds flying around also?

[oshean @ Jul 17th 2006 6:23AM]

Four out of five dentists agree...deuterium fluoride lasers prevent plaque attacks.

[RacetrackOwner @ Jul 17th 2006 6:51AM]

Gosh Bob, what a great idea. All the world's problems can be solved by a nice quiet chat over tea and crumpets, once those nasty dictators and terrorists are made to understand that they're behaving rudely.

Sad to see so much money being wasted on sub-par public education, rather than helping people avoid public rectal-cranial inversions.

[Gunbuster @ Jul 17th 2006 8:06AM]

Enemy fires one artillery shell… shot down… fires second… shot down… fires third… laser system is out of reactants…

[Bob Rutherford @ Jul 17th 2006 8:23AM]

RacetrackOwner:

I laughed out loud at your comments on another thread - the one to do with Skype being cracked in China. It's a bit of a disappointment to me now to see that you would be top of the dangerous cocks and dicks list.

[Mohamad Vakili @ Jul 22nd 2006 10:04AM]

Hi,
I want to make a picture or text in the sky with laser.
please give me informations abuat it.
Thanks

[Schrecken @ Oct 25th 2006 11:01PM]

If I was a skydiver I sure wouldn't want to be jumping anywhere near that thing!!! Imagine that - having your chute fail would be the least of your worries.....instant cremation!

[Mike @ Jul 27th 2007 11:44AM]

Bob, you said this: "Sad to see so much money being spent on weapons rather than on helping people survive."

While RacetrackOwner's retort may have been a little harsh, it was 100% true. You are just showing your lack of intelligence. There are certain problems that will never ever be solved through diplomacy, even though diplomacy should always be at least attempted. Blindly believing it will work eventually was France's folly in WW2. In fact, France still blindly believed in a diplomatic solution with Hitler WHILE he was invading! Some people are just morons, and there is no excusing their ignorance.

Now back to the statement I quoted from you... this system being developed is NOT a weapon. In fact, it is a DEFENSE system. So your complaint isn't even relevant here. Go cry about a tree or something.


To some of the other comments/questions regarding technical aspects:

The newer systems under development (HELLADS) do NOT require double-decker bus-sized batteries, and in fact are extremely small and portable. They can hit anything down to the size of RPG's (at least), and this has been tested flawlessly. They are very fast, although I'm not sure how fast. I saw once somewhere that THEL could take out 10+ targets per minute, and that was a decade ago. There is no "video game junkie" pointing and clicking at targets on a screen. It is 100% automatic. This is very old technology. Look up CIWS. It's been around for decades now, and works well, although it's a projectile based system, and has a very short range. Finally, There is no way you can mistake a missile, mortar, rpg, etc for a plane or vice versa. They aren't even in the same league. If this is also designed to take out enemy aircraft, then we have to make sure our IFF system is working. We lost at least one plane in Iraq due to a failed IFF transponder. However, it isn't the laser system that is the problem here....since it wasn't even involved.

As for the Star Wars program.....you're WAY off-base on that one. Star Wars was a nickname given to President Reagan's 1980's plan to develop and deploy space-based weapons and defense systems. Lasers were to be eventually deployed as well. The USA and USSR signed a treaty banning missile defense systems (this is not the same as the treaty banning the militarization of space, which China has just ruined by testing an anti-satellite missile). Both countries kept their word on the missile defense ban, until the USSR stopped existing. That treaty is no longer valid, and no treaty has been signed with any other nation regarding missile defense systems. Russia is included in the "any other nation" category, since it is NOT the USSR. Russia was recently invited to enjoy protection under our missile defense shield and declined, opting instead to kick and scream some more and throw an international fit. Wah.

[Suren @ Dec 29th 2008 6:09PM]

I am from Israel from the city Ashkelon.
we need this system! the Hamas terrorists attack us evry day and we are helpless.
please help us! its so terrible!