Lasers Can Destroy Enemy Missles, UAVs
By chris amos
Published: 11 Jul 15:48 EDT (19:48 GMT)
A defense contractor announced July 8 that it has successfully tested a weapons system that it says could protect aircraft operating from military and civilian airfields, as well as Navy ships and other infrastructure, from "a broad range of threats," including shoulder-fired surface to air missile systems and unmanned aerial vehicles.
General Dynamics' ground-based Counter Man-Portable Airspace Protection System uses a system of sensors, an autonomous data integration center, and high powered lasers to track and destroy surface to air missiles and small unmanned aerial vehicles by targeting "critical aircraft components".
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* Air Warfare
During the past three years, General Dynamics has conducted a battery of CMAPS tests at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Ind., Tonopah Test Range, Nev., and the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, Calif.
Because of the tests, General Dynamics believes CMAPS development can be completed in as few as 18 months if the project is adequately funded.
A General Dynamics spokeswoman declined to say where that funding would come from or how much would be required either to complete the program or to field the system, but did say that the Department of Homeland Security has been briefed on the program's status.
In 2005, the Rand Corporation - responding to complaints about the vulnerability of passenger jets to terrorists wielding man portable surface-to-air missile systems - estimated that it would cost approximately $11 billion to install a single laser jammer on each of the 6,800 commercial aircraft in the U.S. fleet, and another $2.1 billion each year to maintain and operate the jammers.
Because CMAPS doesn't require lasers to be installed on individual aircraft, but instead requires only one system per airfield, and because that system can be "accommodated" by a single tactical vehicle, it would result in "substantial cost advantages" and give military or civilian officials added flexibility, Phil Hynes, General Dynamics' vice president of strategic planning for General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products, said in a statement released to Navy Times.
"One of CMAP's key strengths is its mobility" the statement read. "It is portable and can be rapidly deployed to any airfield, and the system can operate safely in both remote and densely populated areas."
Lasers Can Destroy Enemy Missles, UAVs - Defense News
By chris amos
Published: 11 Jul 15:48 EDT (19:48 GMT)
A defense contractor announced July 8 that it has successfully tested a weapons system that it says could protect aircraft operating from military and civilian airfields, as well as Navy ships and other infrastructure, from "a broad range of threats," including shoulder-fired surface to air missile systems and unmanned aerial vehicles.
General Dynamics' ground-based Counter Man-Portable Airspace Protection System uses a system of sensors, an autonomous data integration center, and high powered lasers to track and destroy surface to air missiles and small unmanned aerial vehicles by targeting "critical aircraft components".
Related Topics
* Americas
* Air Warfare
During the past three years, General Dynamics has conducted a battery of CMAPS tests at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Ind., Tonopah Test Range, Nev., and the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, Calif.
Because of the tests, General Dynamics believes CMAPS development can be completed in as few as 18 months if the project is adequately funded.
A General Dynamics spokeswoman declined to say where that funding would come from or how much would be required either to complete the program or to field the system, but did say that the Department of Homeland Security has been briefed on the program's status.
In 2005, the Rand Corporation - responding to complaints about the vulnerability of passenger jets to terrorists wielding man portable surface-to-air missile systems - estimated that it would cost approximately $11 billion to install a single laser jammer on each of the 6,800 commercial aircraft in the U.S. fleet, and another $2.1 billion each year to maintain and operate the jammers.
Because CMAPS doesn't require lasers to be installed on individual aircraft, but instead requires only one system per airfield, and because that system can be "accommodated" by a single tactical vehicle, it would result in "substantial cost advantages" and give military or civilian officials added flexibility, Phil Hynes, General Dynamics' vice president of strategic planning for General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products, said in a statement released to Navy Times.
"One of CMAP's key strengths is its mobility" the statement read. "It is portable and can be rapidly deployed to any airfield, and the system can operate safely in both remote and densely populated areas."
Lasers Can Destroy Enemy Missles, UAVs - Defense News
