Navy Laser Weapon!

[HobbyLaser]

The U.S. Navy has approved designs for a ship-mounted, 100KW free-electron tunable laser canon! :cool:

BTW, 100KW is only for prototyping, they intend to scale this up to a megawatt-class levels - more powerful than even the Air Force's ABL! :eek:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527536.700-laser-warfare-takes-to-the-waves.html

They're still working on the "shark" thing ;)

 

[andyw513]

I wonder if they make one for a Bayliner...

 

[Steve K]

A friend just sent me a link to an article about ship-borne free-electron lasers for defense against anti-ship missiles, etc. I hadn't heard about free-electron lasers before, so now I have to do some reading to understand how shooting an electron beam through a magnetic field generates photons.... can't be any weirder than generating photons by letting electrons decay from one energy level to the next, can it?

The article references the Boeing contract to develop the laser, which references an the Advanced Tactical Laser (wiki page here), which is a smaller version of the Airborne Laser. Both are "chemical oxygen iodine" lasers, but the ATL is fitted into a C-130.

Pretty amazing stuff!

regards,
Steve K.

 

[angelofwar]

Is this the same one that was being mounted to a 787 to "shoot-down" ICBM's??? I know it had a few sucessful tests.

 

[amy822]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Steve K]

Is this the same one that was being mounted to a 787 to "shoot-down" ICBM's??? I know it had a few sucessful tests.

that's the Airborne Laser, mounted in a 747 nose. A neat concept, a bit pricey, and a great opportunity to say "hey, watch this!". :)

Steve K.

 

[DM51]

The U.S. Navy has approved designs for a ship-mounted, 100KW free-electron tunable laser canon!

Does it come with a pocket clip? lol

 

[fyrstormer]

Last I heard, the Navy's megawatt laser project was de-funded by Congress, who would prefer that the Navy spend money developing weapons that don't require nuclear reactors to power them. So...maybe you can buy it at a surplus auction and bolt a McGizmo clip to it?