This Week in Laser News – What’s Going on With HELs (Week of November 4th 2024)

This week, the Iron Beam is getting quite a bit of buzz

The news week for the week of November 4th, 2024. This week, had some great variety in Laser News.

Monday November 4th

ZeeNews released an article titled: Iron Beam: Israel’s $500 Million Laser Weapon Has Unmatched Power But One Tiny Weakness

In the article, Zee News discusses how the 100 kW Iron Beam laser is

Aside from involvement at the U.S. – Saudi Red Sands exercise, the CLaWS system has been deployed for multiple years with the U.S. Marine Corps with an impressive record of taking down nearly 500 drones from multiple different ranges.

Tuesday November 5th

Thomas released an article titled: Boeing Compact Lasers Take Down Uncrewed Drones

In the article, Tricia Contreras discusses how the 5-kilowatt Compact Laser Weapon System (CLaWS) took down Group III UAS in a larger weight class of 1,320 pounds in size.

Aside from involvement at the U.S. – Saudi Red Sands exercise, the CLaWS system has been deployed for multiple years with the U.S. Marine Corps with an impressive record of taking down nearly 500 drones from multiple different ranges.

Tuesday November 5th

Shaheer Ahmad of Modern Diplomacy writes Military Strategy in an Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The general topic of this article centers on a quote from Captain Basil H. Liddlehart:

“The only thing harder than getting a new idea into the military mind is to get an old one out”.

But we are on the brink of a major technological revolution that is being dubbed the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The revolutions are explained in a WEF article as critical progress with technology in these ways:

•the 1st Revolution used water and steam power

•the 2nd Revolution used electrical power

•the 3rd Revolution used electronics and information technology

•the 4th Revolution is expected to build upon the 3rd revolution with even greater velocity, scope, and system’s impact.

While this is an interesting article discussing military policy in general, specific reference is made to the inclusion of Directed Energy Weapons.

Post Image – 4th Industrial Revolution (Post Image Credit: World Economic Forum)

Friday November 8th

Shubhangi Palve writes an article for the Eurasian Times titled Star Wars! How Cost-Effective, High-Energy Laser Weapons Are Turning Science Fiction Into A Reality. In the article a series of 5 examples are given with lasers in development by different countries:

1.Israel’s Iron Beam

2.United States’ with Blue Halo’s Locust systems developed to support the P-HEL effort

3.United Kingdom’s Dragonfire system

4.South Korea’s Block-I

5.India’s DURGA II laser and Kali

Post Image – BlueHalo’s Locust Laser Weapon System. BlueHalo

That’s all for this week. Keep reading or check back for updates.