At IDEX 2015, Rheinmetall surprised by its high-power laser installed on the GTK Boxer platform.
Rheinmetall has invested significant amounts in the design and development of high-power HEL (high-energy laser) lasers for combat use. At IDEX 2015, the company showed a system installed on a multi-role armored vehicle Boxer 8x8 MRAV manufactured by ARTEC.
The concept of the Boxer family is based on a single chassis and interchangeable functional modules that are installed for specific user tasks. These modules, mounted on the chassis, created to obtain maximum operational flexibility, in turn served as an impetus to the development of a wide range of specialized options.
ARTEC company multipurpose Boxer 8x8 MRAV armored vehicle with a rooftop 20 kW laser
During tests conducted in Switzerland in 2013 in the presence of several high-level foreign delegations, Rheinmetall showed its HEL system installed on three ground platforms. In addition to the Boxer MRAV, the other two platforms were the RUAG Defense M113 tracked armored personnel carrier and the Tatra 8x8 off-road protected truck.
The RUAG M113 BTR was equipped with an HEL powering device with a power of 5 kW, which received the designation Mobile HEL Effector Track V, which successfully demonstrated the remote detonation of ammunition. The third container installation HEL with a power of 50 kW on the Tatra truck 8x8 received the designation Mobile HEL Effector Container L. The Roman numerals V, XX and L correspond to the categories of the laser 5 kW, 20 kW and 50 kW.
In parallel, Rheinmetall Air Defense also tested its Skyshield air defense system, in which the 35-mm gun was replaced with a HEL installation. During tests in Switzerland, the Skyshield HEL laser actuator was able to successfully destroy several attacking mortar shells.
Presented at the IDEX 2015 exhibition, the 20 kW mobile unit under the designation Mobile HEL Effector Wheel XX, installed on the GTK Boxer, features a special executive module HEL, which fully takes advantage of the proprietary know-how of Rheinmetall, which is based on beam stacking technology. In addition, this technology allows not only to implement the imposition of several lasers on one firing platform, but also the addition of several rays of different platforms. This allows you to get almost unlimited (for example, 100 kW and more) output power in accordance with the development of air defense requirements. As a result, the HEL installation can provide effective protection against a wide range of modern air threats.
The combination of HEL Boxer is a newest system that implements the technology of mobile high-energy laser weapons - the integration of the laser module (including power supply and cooling) and the Boxer machine with its inherent high level of protection and unique mobility.
The HEL Boxer installation is capable of neutralizing modern air and asymmetric threats. It is notable for its excellent reconfiguration of the threat: from the disabling of optical-electronic systems on aircraft, knocking down UAVs, to neutralizing the ammunition of weapons systems without their destruction and neutralizing unexploded ordnance and clearing obstacles on the battlefield.
HEL Boxer has many advantages: mobility, low cost of destruction, the ability to disable optical-electronic systems, UAVs, destroy ammunition systems of weapons systems, unexploded ordnance, etc.
According to the data of Rheinmetall, the destruction range of this technology demonstration sample is 3000 meters - an increase of 1000 meters compared to the results of previous demonstrations of HEL installations.
Exhibition IDEX 2015. Rheinmetall company booth. Close shot of the HEL module installed on the Boxer
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