Tactical High Energy Laser

The Tactical High Energy Laser, called THEL and also the Nautilus laser system, was a chemical-laser weapon developed jointly by the United States and Israel to destroy rockets, artillery shells and mortar rounds in flight. A cooperative agreement signed on 18 July 1996 launched the demonstrator, which used a deuterium fluoride chemical laser, and Northrop Grumman, formerly TRW, was the primary contractor among four firms awarded the work. The prototype was roughly the size of six city buses, with modules for a command center, a radar and telescope for tracking, the laser itself, fuel and reagent tanks and a rotating mirror to aim the beam. In 2000 and 2001 it shot down 28 Katyusha rockets and five artillery shells, and it later destroyed an incoming shell and then salvos of mortar rounds in 2004. A mobile version, MTHEL, was planned, but in 2005 both governments stopped development after costs passed 300 million dollars, citing bulkiness, expense and poor expected battlefield results.