Boeing has announced the successful installation of a high-energy HEL TD laser on the HEMTT heavy tactical truck. Albuquerque is currently integrating a laser emitter and a laser beam control system. This is the final stage before the weapons control system will be brought online later this year.
The HEMTT truck with a HEL solid-state laser will have to replace the CRAM anti-aircraft artillery system, designed to intercept shells, mines and other small-sized ammunition. HEL has already confirmed the possibility of destroying such targets, it remains to integrate all the nodes into a single system suitable for use on the battlefield.
Almost all the individual components of the tactical laser "cannon" are now ready. A hybrid truck capable of generating up to 100 kW of electricity and a beam concentrator has been created. In June of this year, General Atomics Advanced Power Systems Division completed testing of a unique thermal energy accumulator specially designed to cool directed energy weapons. The device weighing 35 kg is a module capable of absorbing a large amount of thermal energy. It can store 230 kW of heat (equivalent to melting about 10 kg of ice in 13 seconds). The heat melts the energy-intensive material, similar to wax. Thus, the main problem of laser weapons is solved - overheating. A hybrid truck charging a supercapacitor battery and cooling modules will allow continuous firing for a relatively long time - up to ten minutes.
Next year, after assembling all the components and integrating complex control and guidance systems, a low-power combat laser will be tested at the White Sands test site. Later, in case of successful testing of the fire control system, a standard powerful HEL laser will be mounted on the truck, which means that it is ready for combat tests. The exact power of the HEL TD is unknown, but most likely it is at least 100 kW.
The HEL battle laser is aimed at the target using a low-power laser beam. After the target is securely locked, a high-energy laser is activated and destroys it. The guidance system includes mirrors, high-speed processors and optical sensors.
It is safe to say that within 5 years the first samples of weapons based on different physical principles will appear on the battlefield, and HEMTT HEL will be the pioneer.
