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The German defence firm used the high-energy laser equipment to shoot fast-moving drones at a distance. The system, which uses two laser weapons, was also used to cut through a steel girder a kilometre away. The company plans to make the laser weapons system mobile and to integrate automatic cannon. The 50kW laser weapons system used radar and optical systems to detect and track two incoming drones, the company said. The nose-diving drones were flying at 50 metres per second, and were shot down when they reached a programmed fire sector.
Weather trials
The weapons system locked onto the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by using radar for a rough approximation of the location of the targets, then fine-tuned the tracking using an optical system. The high-energy laser system was used to cut through a 15mm-thick steel girder, and to shoot out of the air a steel ball designed to mimic a mortar round. The company has tested the laser system in a variety of weather conditions, including snow, sunlight, and rain.
Rheinmetall plans to test its laser weapons mounted on different vehicles and to integrate a 35mm revolver cannon into it. A number of governments and defence firms are in the process of developing weapons that use or incorporate lasers. For example, Raytheon unveiled a 50kW anti-aircraft laser at the Farnborough Airshow in 2010, and in June 2012 the US Army released details of a weapon that can fire a laser-guided lightning-bolt at a target.
BBC News - Rheinmetall demos laser that can shoot down drones
US Army scientists are developing a weapon which can fire a laser-guided lightning bolt at a target. The Laser-Induced Plasma Channel (LIPC) is designed to hit targets that conduct electricity better than the air or ground that surrounds them. The weapon went through extensive testing in January. George Fischer, lead scientist on the project, said: "We never got tired of the lightning bolts zapping our simulated [targets]."
Details of the weapon were released on the US Army's website. Mr Fischer explained how the usually unpredictable lightning bolts can be controlled. "If a laser puts out a pulse with modest energy, but the time is incredibly tiny, the power can be huge," Mr Fischer said. "During the duration of the laser pulse, it can be putting out more power than a large city needs, but the pulse only lasts for two-trillionths of a second."
50 billion watts
This means, Mr Fischer said, the air could be manipulated to "act like a lens". "We use an ultra-short-pulse laser of modest energy to make a laser beam so intense that it focuses on itself in air and stays focused in a filament," he said. Fifty billion watts of optical power are used. By comparison, a typical filament lightbulb uses 100 watts of power. "If a laser beam is intense enough, its electro-magnetic field is strong enough to rip electrons off of air molecules, creating plasma," Mr Fischer said. "This plasma is located along the path of the laser beam, so we can direct it wherever we want by moving a mirror." The team said it faced a challenge in making the technology rugged enough to survive in harsh battle conditions.
BBC News - Lightning laser weapon developed by US Army
In a playful response, a senior US government official said the Obama administration "does not support blowing up planets". The official also said the cost - about $850 quadrillion - was too high. More than 34,000 people had signed the petition, saying the project would spur job creation and strengthen defence. They also wanted the government to begin construction by 2016. The White House is obliged to respond to all petitions that gain more than 25,000 signatures.
'Force be with us!'
Responding to the petition, Paul Shawcross, head of the administration's budget office on science and space, admitted in a blog that "a Death Star isn't on the horizon". "However, look carefully and you'll notice something already floating in the sky - that's no Moon, it's a Space Station! Mr Shawcross was referring to the International Space Station, which currently has six people on board.
And he ended his blog with an appeal to the signatories of the petition: "If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! "Remember, the Death Star's power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force."
BBC News - US shoots down Death Star superlaser petition
