Military lasers

[LED-FX]

Problem with laser anti missile systems is what if your opponent chrome plates their missile, that and getting the darn laser to less than the size of a football field with any power, but anyway couple of links of interest:

Miracl, product of early 80`s , pre Star Wars:

http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/asat/miracl.htm

Air Borne Laser:

http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/abl/flash.html

Big lasers in general:

http://members.rogers.com/biglasers/index.html

On a peaceful note , talked to gent who worked in the attack, er, defence industry since the late 40`s in precision machining, he remembers the birth of lasers as being a great help, as he saiod before then a decent long stright line was largely theoretical, lasers changed that.

Adam

 

[DarkLight]

chrome absorbs infrared quite well you know...

 

[jeffb]

I am a Rep for "Photoelectrics" (Infrared, Visible, Laser); would say that infrared is "highly" reflective to chrome; we can't see it, however a test with a reciever, tuned to the IR LED emitter, would! (you would get some "scatter" as well; a laser "really" scatters.)

jeffb

 

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[ QUOTE ]
DarkLight said:
chrome absorbs infrared quite well you know...

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I didn`t actually, er, Gold plating...?

 

[AdamW]

If you knew the wavelength(s?) of the laser that will be directed at your missile, you can choose the most appropriate reflective coating, be it chrome, gold, whatever.

Your missile can also rapidly spin, or rotate around it's long axis to distribute the laser energy over a larger area. The idea is that with the laser striking in a stripe (remember, the missile is spinning like a rifled projectile) the energy will hopefully be distributed enough that the missile survives.

In reality, these things, and others, have been considered. Missiles will be hit with too much energy and or multiple hits to survive.

Adam (another one...)

edit: spelling

 

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[ QUOTE ]
AdamW said:
In reality, these things, and others, have been considered. Missiles will be hit with too much energy and or multiple hits to survive.

Adam (another one...)


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A reality realisable this lifetme though...

See some similarities with the `lasing a plane ` stuff, except an ICBM is quite a lot smaller and travelling a bit quicker. Tracking is no mean feat, the Patriot anti-missile missile hasn`t been the success its sometimes claimed to be..

Adaptive optics still wont help through thick cloud and severe atmospheric distortion and even with ABL`s COIL laser power density has a way to go, at least if you need more than one shot every rebuild.

Like the `lasing a plane` thing, using a good old fashioned projectile seems to offer considerable performance benefits, just dinnae start on railguns, anyone need some army surplus electromagnets, all slightly bent;-)

Adam

 

[GrvN]

Im stationed at Wright patterson AFB in ohio and they have the research labs up here. When i first got here they took us on a tour of area b where they keep all the aliens and stuff. They have a field set up with a laser on a platform that shoots old tanks in the field, very impressive.

 

[GrvN]

dup

 

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[ QUOTE ]
GrvN said:
Im stationed at Wright patterson AFB in ohio and they have the research labs up here. When i first got here they took us on a tour of area b where they keep all the aliens and stuff. They have a field set up with a laser on a platform that shoots old tanks in the field, very impressive.

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Have seen some videos of tests using small drone aircraft getting hit with test lasers, shooting old tanks sounds like fun."gies a shot, mister" as used to say when was a young kid, just an older one now.

Does sound very impressive, am jealous ;-)

Thanks
Adam