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Thursday, August 25, 2005

Hellads and the Hell Fire




Copyright © 2005 Hell Fire. All rights reserved
An album cover from Japanese metal band, Hell Fire.

Copyright © 2005 Hell Fire. All rights reserved


Hellads are ancient people who worshipped the triple-goddess, Helen and practiced Hellenic culture in the Greek mythology. This people also brought in the story of Deucalion, the survivor of the great Mesopotamian flood, similar to the story of Biblical Noah in the Great Flood. Now, this name signifies a new era in defense military: the High-Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS), an advanced lightweight laser system to be used in a wide range of tactical systems of U.S. Military.


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Under Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), this HELLADS project has been contracted to Lockheed Martin, a company which records successful bids for U.S. Government's military projects in recent years where they have been applied in Desert Storm operations and Iraq war.

Why is this so significant? Ever dream of Star Wars? A few secret years ago, U.S. Military has fitted a bulky laser system on Boeing 747. This laser system uses megawatt capable power-range liquid state laser (a pump source of hidrogen fluoride as the result from a chemical reaction between ethylene and nitrogen trifluoride) operated in continuous wave mode. Another version is chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) that requires a pump source of oxygen and iodine. However, it was not technically feasible to put such laser system in lightweight tactical war machines as it requires a bulky cooling system. And, it is not kind of rapid fire shots: for every a few seconds shot, the system needs minutes of cool-down time.

To solve the problem of size and weight, DARPA has came up with the idea of merging liquid lasers with solid-state lasers. Solid-state lasers just need a diode pump source and they able to produce intense high-energy rays but in pulse wave mode to avoid overheating. Overheating problem will be handled by thermal management system found in liquid lasers. DARPA reckons that this merged system will be able to produce 150kW of power at a weight of 5kg/kW, so compact enough to be fitted on small fighter airplanes (about the size of a fridge and 750kg in weight).

There are five phases in HELLADS project and is currently at Phase 3 with the estimated 2006 budget of 20 Million U.S. Dollars. The project has started since March 2005 and it will complete around Dec 2009.

The Star Wars dream is now a reality.

posted by Eclectic Ee @ 11:27 AM

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