DARPA Arms Aircraft with Lasers; Star Wars Becomes a Reality

The government may have shut down plans to build the Death Star, but they're certainly not backing away from the idea of lasers. The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) is moving ahead with two new plans to make laser weapons a reality.

Star Wars fans will be glad to know that DARPA plans to use its High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS) to arm combat airplanes against incoming rockets or missiles. These liquid-cooled lasers wouldn't just be able to be used defensively, though. DARPA hopes that they would have additional capabilities to be used in offense missions, offering precise targeting with a low probability of collateral damage.

Currently, the project is underway to design a 150-kilowatt system that's small enough to actually fit on a fighter jet or bomber when it takes to the sky. Although there are lasers that currently have similar capabilities, they would need to be 10 times smaller and lighter to be used on planes.

The HELLADS project isn't the only one that DARPA is working on, though. The organization also hopes to design the Aero-Adaptive/Aero-Optic Beam Control (ABC). This system is planned to be more defensive than HELLADS--its lasers would be designed to fire backward at oncoming missiles. The main difficulty with this project is that the turbulence generated by jet engines can de-focus laser beams, which makes targeting a challenge.

Lasers aren't anything new. They're being increasingly used in military applications around the world. In addition to these two new projects, the U.S. has also been working with the Israeli government to develop the Nautilus Tactical High Energy Laser. This ground-based defense laser would have helped block robot attacks. However, the U.S. backed out of the project in 2006.

Although DARPA doubtless plans to use these lasers for more practical purposes, it's also one step closer to creating the laser-based weapons featured in Star Wars.