http://www.janes.com/defence/land_forces/news/jdw/jdw041101_1_n.shtml
Northrop unveils laser to counter mortar
attacks
By Michael Sirak JDW Staff Reporter
Washington, DC
Northrop Grumman has offered the US Army a directed-energy laser
weapon - which it says could be available within 18 months of a
contract - to counter the mortar threat to US and coalition forces
currently operating in Iraq.
The concept, dubbed the High Energy Laser for Rocket, Artillery and
Mortar (HELRAM) defence system, has grown out of the company's
continuing work on a deuterium-fluoride chemical laser system under
the joint US Army-Israeli Ministry of Defence Mobile Tactical High
Energy Laser (MTHEL) programme.
Patrick Caruana, Northrop Grumman vice president for Missile and
Space Defense, said the HELRAM concept stems from the company's
desire to offer a nearer-term means of shooting down mortar rounds
in flight as well as rockets and artillery shells before MTHEL is
available: an MTHEL prototype is expected by the end of the decade
for testing.
"We have already demonstrated at our test site the shootdown
capability against medium and heavy mortar [rounds]," he told JDW
on 26 October, referring to tests on 24 August during which
the THEL testbed shot down seven mortar rounds, including
three during a salvo attack. "That gave us a good deal of
confidence that what we had was the ability to engage these threats
and kill them."