Tactical High Energy Laser

The Tactical High-Energy Laser, or THEL, was a

artillery shells. On November 4, 2002, THEL shot down an incoming artillery shell. The prototype weapon was roughly the size of six city buses, made up of modules that held a command center, radar and a telescope for tracking targets, the chemical laser itself, fuel and reagent tanks, and a rotating mirror to reflect its beam toward speeding targets. It was discontinued in 2005.^[1]

History

On July 18, 1996, the United States and Israel entered into an agreement to produce a cooperative Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL), called the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrator, which would utilize

Initial Operating Capability

(IOC) was planned in FY1999. However, this was significantly delayed due to reorienting the project as a mobile, not fixed, design, called Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL). The original fixed location design eliminates most weight, size and power restrictions, but is not compatible with the fluid, mobile nature of modern combat. The initial MTHEL goal was a mobile version the size of three large semi trailers. Ideally it would be further downsized to a single semi trailer size. However, doing this while maintaining the original performance characteristics is difficult. Furthermore, the Israeli government, which had been providing significant funding, decreased their financial support in 2004, postponing the IOC date to at least 2010.

In 2000 and 2001 THEL shot down 28

artillery shells

.

On November 4, 2002, THEL shot down an incoming artillery shell. A mobile version completed successful testing. During a test conducted on August 24, 2004 the system successfully shot down multiple

Israeli Space Agency

, renewed his calls to implement the THEL against high-trajectory fire.

In 2007,

Qassam attacks.^[2]