Unleash Hellhound! Northrop Grumman boasts new military buggy has laser weapons 'we would once only see in Star Trek'

* Six seater buggy is 'laser ready' for next generation weapons
* The 5,897 kg (6.5-ton) Hellhound can carry six including the driver
* Is able to produce enough power to run a field hospital or command centre
* Will come with optional integrated 10-kilowatt solid-state fiber laser

It could be the ultimate offroader - and take soldiers into battle like never before.

Northrop Grumman has revealed the ultimate buggy -  a six seater that boasts its own laser weapon.

Called the Hellhound, it was revealed at the  the Association of the US Army's annual conference in Washington, DC.

Northrop Grumman says it plans to integrate a 10-kilowatt solid-state fiber laser into the tactical dune buggy.

The 5,897 kg (6.5-ton) Hellhound can carry six people, including the driver.

It is designed to fulfill the US Army's potential light reconnaissance vehicle programme and will compete against other designs for the lucrative contract.

The 5,897 kg (6.5-ton) Hellhound can carry six including the driver.

It is able to generate 100 kVA of exportable power, which is particularly high for a vehicle of its size, with a 120 kW Jenoptik integrated starter generator, with officials boasting it could 'power the entire hall' it was launched in.

In a disaster scenario, the Hellhound could power a blacked-out hospital or a command post.

Although the version shown off has a more traditional weapon, the firm says it is 'laser ready'  and plans to integrate a 10-kilowatt solid-state fiber laser into the tactical dune buggy.

 Northrop is using a modular energy system in the vehicle from German company JENOPTIK, which produces systems capable of generating 100 kilowatts of 'exportable, stable power,' Jeff Wood,

Northrop's director of vehicle modernization, said, according to Defence News.

'There’s never been that much power on a vehicle this small,' he said.

Inside the Hellhound: The vehicle has room for six people, including the driver.

In a disaster scenario, he said, the Hellhound could power a blacked-out hospital; in a war zone, it could power a command post.

Or, Wood said, you could power a laser beam.

'To jump to 100 kilowatts opens new opportunities that we are beginning to explore,' he said, such as 'directed energy weapons that we would once only see in Star Trek are now quite possible.'

The power will 'open new opportunities in powering expeditionary command post or key infrastructure as part of disaster response teams,' Wood said.

Several firms have working laser weapons, and Lockheed Martin recently showed off its laser weapon.

The 30-kilowatt fibre laser called Athena burnt through the manifold in seconds, despite being fired by a team from Lockheed Martin positioned more than a mile away.

The security firm said the test signifies the next step to fitting lightweight laser weapons on military aircraft, helicopters, ships and trucks.

The demonstration was the first field testing of Lockheed’s integrated 30-kilowatt, single-mode fibre laser weapon system prototype.

‘Fiber-optic lasers are revolutionising directed energy systems,’ said Keoki Jackson, Lockheed Martin chief technology officer.

‘We are investing in every component of the system - from the optics and beam control to the laser itself - to drive size, weight and power efficiencies.

‘This test represents the next step to providing lightweight and rugged laser weapon systems for military aircraft, helicopters, ships and trucks.’

By using a technique known as spectral beam combining, the system blends multiple laser modules to create a single, powerful, high-quality beam.

This is said to provide greater ‘efficiency and lethality’ than multiple individual 10-kilowatt lasers used in other systems.

Athena is based on the firm’s Area Defense Anti-Munitions (Adam) laser weapon system.

The laser, known as Athena, was built by Maryland-based security firm Lockheed Martin. During the test, the 30-kilowattfibre laser burnt through the truck’s engine (pictured) and disabled it from more a mile away

In tests off the California coast in May, Adam was used to successfully disable two boats at a range of approximately one mile (1.6km).

Lockheed Martin said at the time that it developed the ground-based system ‘to demonstrate a practical, affordable defence against short-range threats.’

During the marine the high-energy laser burnt through multiple compartments of the rubber hull of the military-grade small boats in less than 30 seconds.

Will Bilderberg elect the next US president?

Around 150 of the world’s elite will meet outside of Washington, DC this week at the annual Bilderberg Conference, and although the agenda isn’t advertised to the public, some sources are already speaking out about what this year might bring.

Officially, the details of each Bilderberg Conference aren’t anything its members will go on the record to reveal. According to spectators that have kept a close eye on the event’s happenings each year, however, the annual conference has a reputation for being a kingmaker — and an elusive and exclusive one at that.

Speaking to RT earlier this month, radio host Alex Jones shared his expectations for the coming conference. According to the journalist, “Should the elite get behind Mitt Romney or Barack Obama?” is a question that he expects to be brought up for discussion. “Both men are bought and paid for by the same financial interests, and so the discussion will be which candidate can basically con the American people to lay down the tyranny for another four years.”

But does the biggest election of 2012 really rely that much on a mysterious meeting? Many people will tell you yes, and they are often willing to provide evidence to explain. Before becoming household names, politicians such as former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton both attended Bilderberg conferences in the years before being elected to the Oval Office. Tony Blair was on hand at the 1993 gala before becoming prime minister of England in 1997, and the 2008 conference is believed to be the catalyst for that year’s US presidential election: rumors suggest that attendees settling on backing Barack Obama for the Democratic Party nomination at that year’s event, only for contender Hillary Clinton to bow out two days later.

“For an entire day, the media in Virginia and in DC saying, ‘Where’s Obama? Where’s Obama?’ And we were there saying he’s inside, the secret service is there,” Alex Jones recalls of the 2004 conference to RT.

As with 2004, this year's Bilderberg Conference will be held at the Chantilly, Virginia Westfield Marriott, and employees there are already privy to the fact that Jones will be ready to scrutinize every action he can witness from the grounds: on Tuesday, his reservation at the establishment was revoked and he was informed that he banned from the hotel; hours later, Jones’ Prison Planet website revealed that “all guests had been kicked out of the hotel, and offered one night’s accommodation at the Residence Inn in Chantilly (also Marriott owned).”

“Policy is being set there and this is one of the most elite meetings out there,” Jones told RT. That, many fear, is precisely why those close to the conference don’t want outsiders to have an inside scoop.

This year Jones expects details of the US presidential election to obviously be discussed, but perhaps the agenda item most interesting to many involves only one side of the race: rumors are quickly evolving about who and how the GOP will go about selecting a vice presidential nominee to run alongside their candidate of choice, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Al Kamen, a writer at the Washington Post, recently compared a recent speech from Senator Marco Rubio with one given at the 2004 Bilderberg Conference by John Edwards — which some say was instrumental in securing the VP nod back in 2004. The rumors of  Bilderberg being a launching pad for a Rubio run under Romney at this week’s conference has since been spun by reporters at Politico, Salon and elsewhere.