The US Air Force buys armored cars with a laser demining system

The American Air Force will clear airfields from mines and improvised explosive devices using laser systems. NPlus1 reports with reference to C4ISRNET that the contact for the delivery of the units has already been concluded.

According to the report, the US Air Force command has signed a contract with the American company Parsons, which won the tender under the RADBO project. According to the agreement, the company will supply armored vehicles with a laser module to the Air Force, which will be used to clear airfields from mines and improvised explosive devices. The contract value was $ 40 million.

The company explained that the development of this armored vehicle started at the beginning of 2015, in February of the same year, tests of the first prototype of the vehicle were carried out, which were recognized as successful.

The installation itself for demining airfields was created on the basis of an armored vehicle with increased mine protection of the type MRAP - Cougar MRAP. The armored car is equipped with a 3 kW laser system, capable of detonating mines at a distance of 300 meters from the vehicle. In addition, the armored car is equipped with a special manipulator capable of lifting a weight of 22,6 kg. The armored car is equipped with infrared cameras, control systems and two additional power generators.

According to available information, the US Air Force command plans to adopt 13 armored vehicles with laser demining systems.

Comments

[Thrall]

As far as I understand, in order to destroy an IED with a laser, it must first be detected visually or in another traditional way, and then a bullet must be fired with a laser? The laser cannot work across areas like our Serpent Gorynych.

[vkl.47]

And if a mine is hidden or covered, after all, that is why it is a mine, as a rule, landmines are hidden.

[Shurik70]

If a mine is found, then yes. Even if powdered, a short pulse of a high power laser is able to create a shock blast wave, evaporating some of the earth. Small, but enough for a mine to detonate. At short distances, the main disadvantage of the laser disappears - scattering in the atmosphere. A high-power impulse installation can be created compact enough to be placed on an armored car. You can't shoot down a UAV with a short pulse if it has mirror paint.
Here are just a discovered mine and can be destroyed from a simple pistol. And it seems to me that several thousand pistol bullets will be cheaper than one armored car with a laser system. Although on an armored car, in addition to a laser, you can, of course, put all kinds of scanners and radars with automatic detection and destruction of mines.

[KVU-NSVD]

And the sappers themselves, who discovered this mine, are no longer able to put a TNT charge on it and detonate it? I am already silent about neutralization. Need to fence a car with a laser? There are also methods of remote neutralization without a laser, and they are known to every soldier who was on the front line. A laser is, of course, technologically advanced and telegenic, but people still carry out engineering reconnaissance.

[vVvAD]

The installation itself for demining airfields

Actually, we are talking about automating and accelerating the process of direct demining and reducing the risk to humans in its process - a very, very highly specialized machine.
We have the same "Foliage" and without lasers and will find, and muffle, and, if possible, will send a signal to detonate. Now, if you put something like that on it, there will be no price for it - and not only to protect the PGRK.

[KVU-NSVD]

Quote: vVvAD

The installation itself for demining airfields

Actually, we are talking about automating and accelerating the process of direct demining and reducing the risk to humans in its process - a very, very highly specialized machine.
We have the same "Foliage" and without lasers and will find, and muffle, and, if possible, will send a signal to detonate. Now, if you put something like that on it, there will be no price for it - and not only to protect the PGRK.

yes, let them neutralize them as they want. But it would be better if the detection of mines would be automated - it is the detection that is the most dangerous part of a sapper's work - neutralization takes less lives than detection and identification.

[Daniil Konovalenko]

And the attendants, then, the attendants, how many were spent on development, and how much they will give for delivery ... It will be effective, it will not, one dollar knows ... But how much has already been chopped up ...

[pereselenec]

Quote: KVU-NSVD

And the sappers themselves are no longer able to put a TNT charge on it and detonate it? Need to fence a car with a laser?

And the sappers themselves are no longer capable of defusing a mine with a suspended stone on a rope? Need to block the charge and detonate?
And the sappers themselves are no longer able to find a mine with a probe? Need to fence a metal detector?
And the sappers themselves are no longer able to dig out a mine with their hands? Need to fence a sapper blade?
And the grenadiers themselves are no longer capable of setting fire to a grenade and throwing it with their hand? Need to fence a mortar?
And the archers themselves are no longer capable of hitting the enemy with an arrow? Need gunpowder and firearms to fence?
And the Neanderthals themselves are already capable of killing a bison with cameos and clubs? Need to fence a bow and arrow?

Well, you understand

[KVU-NSVD]

Quote: pereselenec

And the sappers themselves are no longer capable of defusing a mine with a suspended stone on a rope?

Capable in the absence of regular funds

And the sappers themselves are no longer able to find a mine with a probe? Need to fence a metal detector?

Mines are not always in a metal case for a long time. The test leads are still valid.

And the sappers themselves are no longer able to dig out a mine with their hands? Need to fence a sapper blade?

They are capable and sometimes do so, the shovel does not channel everywhere. [Quote And the grenadiers themselves are no longer able to set fire to a grenade and throw it with their hand? Do you need to fence a mortar?] [/ Quote] Not a single grenadier will throw a grenade further than fifty meters. Well, and so on ... I catch what you are talking about - the progress of military technology. I'm talking about the pointlessness of automating mine clearance without automating detection. A sapper who finds a mine will easily stick a piece of plastid to it. And a laser that can burn out a mine will not be able to detect and identify it.

[Mikhail3]

Can work. Mina does not move, and its cooling is weak. For such conditions, lasers are suitable.

[OgnennyiKotik]

Behind the scenes, laser weapons have become the norm. Science fiction has become simply one of the means of destruction. With its pros and cons.

[APASUS]

See the principle of detonating unexploded ordnance with a laser

[KCA]

It seems that the United States does not know about water cannons to destroy IEDs, especially about those installed on unmanned vehicles

[Blue fox]

Hmm. A jet of high-pressure liquid has been used to deactivate VOPs for a long time, but here the laser was adjusted. Moreover, in the concept of searching for minefields in the interests of the Air Force ... Of course, the decontamination of mines at such a distance (up to 300 m if you believe the article) is interesting, but still the main thing is detection, and not the method of destruction. In general, somehow unclear.