protrude from the front end. Multiple wires connect to the back. While it hardly looks threatening in appearance, Boeing’s Compact Laser Weapon System represents the latest response to the increasing use of unmanned airborne systems in warfare situations. Developed for the U.S. Army Special Forces, the laser weapon can disable or bring down an enemy unmanned aircraft by destroying its camera, engine or aerodynamics. It shoots a silent, light-speed beam at a target, including from long range, and brings down unmanned aircraft in seconds. “Small UAS (unmanned airborne systems) are a priority for us—our adversaries have them and bad actors within our borders have them,” DeYoung said. “You can buy them with a high-definition camera at an electronics store for $1,200. The legacy we want is to get laser advances to our product, and get the product in the hands of the warfighter.” The Compact Laser Weapon System 24 | BOEING FRONTIERS can be more easily transported across a battlefield and used than comparable weaponry, the engineers say. Just two people are needed to pick it up and load it onto a military vehicle. Setup time requires 10 minutes. Added troop and civilian safety is a big motivator for these Boeing Albuquerque engineers to complete this project that is about two years in the making. “If we can have just one more American soldier, airman or Marine come home safe, if we can lessen the civilian casualties by being more lethal, I think we’ve done our job,” Crow said. With customer feedback in hand, mechanical engineers Kurt Sorenson and Bryan Crespin apply upgrades to the Compact Laser Weapon System. The chief outside request: Build the equipment even more rugged in order to deal with different types of terrain and weather, plus troops packing it up in a hurry to exit a combat zone. Users welcome controls that operate similar to those on a videogame console. They also appreciate the element of surprise the laser weapon guarantees, which is a strong selling point for the military. “Even a kilometer or two away, it’s stealthy,” Crespin said. “People just don’t know where it’s coming from.” Elsewhere at Boeing Albuquerque, a team of engineers led by Juan Ceniceros, a former NASA employee, builds cameras and sensors for the Vision-based, Electro-Optical Sensor Tracking Assembly, or VESTA. This is part of the transportation technology that will guide Boeing’s Crew Space Transportation vehicle, known as the CST-100 Starliner, in navigation and docking at the International Space Station. “Not a lot of people can say, ‘I build something that will help transport crew into space,’ ” Ceniceros said. “We push boundaries here. We do stuff that hasn’t been done before. To be part of historic first events, it’s a badge of honor.”
Frontiers May 2016 Issue
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