Navy Tests First Laser Defense Weapons System

[house70]

[citation][nom]las_man_9999[/nom]These lasers are not nessaryly in the visable light spectrum. so a regular mirror will not work.[/citation]
A mirror reflects all spectrum of light to a certain degree; just because you can not see it it doesn't mean it's not there. It's like saying "If I can't see radiation it can't hurt me".

 

[robochump]

[citation][nom]tburns1[/nom]Didn't someone just come up with an electromagnetic shield to counter lasers?[/citation]

Lol.

 

[hoofhearted]

Energy based weapons. Cool. Now we might be able to stop the Goa'uld.

 

[robochump]

[citation][nom]kkiddu[/nom]I think a very high reflective mirror might be able to do so. But such a mirror might not be practically feasible. No real object can reflect all light that falls on it. Some part of the light is always absorbed. If a laser is intended to cause destruction, it can, in my opinion, be safely assumed that a mirror wouldn't stand it long enough to act as a shield.I'm just a science student and not an expert, so it might be wrong.[/citation]

Yeah mirror....lol. Like to see how long some guy can carry around a mirror while being cooked at 400+ degrees or have a ton of highly reflective mirrors on a ship or paint your boat an ultra cool chrome! lol

 

[liveonc]

Why didn't they just call it high-energy laser light (HELL) ;-)

 

[zachary k]

[citation][nom]Rykoshet[/nom]Light speed not fast enough for you?[/citation]
it arrives at the target faster, yes, but it also takes much more time to do damage. while a physical round deals instant damage, a laser might have to heat up or cut through to do its damage.

 

[fayzaan]

[citation][nom]rykoshet[/nom]Light speed not fast enough for you?[/citation]

he wants internet high speeds!

 

[ikefu]

Most mirrors would shatter in a hurry from the heat of the laser beam that is not reflective (99% reflective still absorbs 1% of the energy)

Also, its not very efficient to cover an entire ship or missile in mirrors. You'd be able to spot it from a mile away from reflecting sunlight or searchlights.

As for uses for the laser, it would be way easier to intercept with a high speed missile with a laser since you don't have to do calculations for travel time, velocity, and wind sheer. If Bill Gates can kill something as small as mosquitoes with a laser, think what the military can do to something as large as a missile.

 

[Guest]

"it arrives at the target faster, yes, but it also takes much more time to do damage. while a physical round deals instant damage, a laser might have to heat up or cut through to do its damage."

This laser is suppose to be able to deal damage very quickly (cut through feet of steal in few seconds). Granted it won't take out a bunker. I don't see this as a replacement, but it is different in strengths and weaknesses which is good.

 

[wcnighthawk]

What's that China? Anti-aircraft carrier missiles? No problem, we have pew pew lasers now.

 

[Guest]

We need more tax cuts for the next 20 years to pay for it

 

[xahydra]

Politics set aside, give these engineers a bit of credit here. A mirror would work for visible and a bit of near-visible light on each side of the spectrum (a few hundred to up around 1000+ nanometers) but this is a far-infrared beam we are talking about (if its anything like a CO2 laser, then about 10,000nm). Far infrared is absorbed WAY more by most surfaces, including glass, than your pocket laser pointer. Conventional mirrors will just get obliterated like everything else.

 

[wiyosaya]

[citation][nom]kuritorisu[/nom]so "Stormtrooper Blaster Gun" is possible?[/citation]
Ummm, not really. The laser on this ship is being powered by the ship's generators. With this laser, a compact power source capable of producing a fair fraction of the power that the ship's generators produce would be needed to realize a "Stormtrooper Blaster Gun". In other words, the equivalent of "Mr. Fusion". At this point, no such compact power source is available - AFAIK.

Barring that, the laser itself would need to be significantly more efficient, that is likely not on the near-term horizon, either.

As far as cost goes, these guys leveraged the development work by the Army, so costs were substantially reduced. For a more detailed coverage of this story, check this.

 

[Haserath]

Can a mirror block all electromagnetic waves, or are there kinds that can get through? This would definitely help the Navy as they could have ships with kinetic ammunition and a second faster ship with just lasers(which could also be recharged with solar panels, in fact I think I just found the perfect defense...recharge your own batteries off of this then put up a defense to block the rest) that could fry a ship if it didn't have a "M.I.R.R.O.R." 😛

 

[marcusmurphy]

[citation][nom]Douglas Perry[/nom]There was only limited image material available...[/citation]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20052838-501465.html

 

[wiyosaya]

[citation][nom]Haserath[/nom]Can a mirror block all electromagnetic waves, or are there kinds that can get through? This would definitely help the Navy as they could have ships with kinetic ammunition and a second faster ship with just lasers(which could also be recharged with solar panels, in fact I think I just found the perfect defense...recharge your own batteries off of this then put up a defense to block the rest) that could fry a ship if it didn't have a "M.I.R.R.O.R."[/citation]
The problem is more complicated than that. The mirror would have to be capable of handling the power in this beam; that is, the mirror itself would vaporize if it was not capable of handling the high level of power lasers like these produce.

These lasers are not the pocket pointers that most people are used to which can be easily reflected by mirrors. If you have ever seen footage of these types of lasers, they can punch fist sized holes in a couple of inches of steel in a matter of seconds. These are "serious" killers. The "sci-fi" depictions of lasers like this is skewed towards complete inaccuracy.

Second, as to recharging by solar cells that from this beam, they, too, would also have to be capable of handling the power produced by lasers like these. AFAIK, no such solar cells exist. This laser would vaporize most solar cells before you get any useful power out of them.

Even if the target ship were build of highly polished stainless steel, or some other similarly highly reflecting surface, a laser like this would likely be capable of burning through that simply because there is so much energy in the beam - enough to vaporize almost anything that it comes in contact with.

Perhaps a better choice of material would be a ceramic, like alumina, with a "diffuse" surface that scatters, rather than reflects, the laser light. Even so, keep a laser like this focused on the same spot for long enough, it would likely burn through even that. However, this is a ship that does not exist, and would likely be built only at an astronomical cost.

 

[jednx01]

[citation][nom]upgrayedd[/nom]It's a defensive weapon because of its shorter range and slower speed. It is line of sight only and therefore limited by the horizon. Its advantage is that it has an almost unlimited, non-volatile ammo. On a modern ship with a nuclear reactor, you need not worry about expensive ammo that can explode on your own ship.[/citation]
of course, nuclear reactors can have problems too. 😛

 

[jednx01]

[citation][nom]wiyosaya[/nom]The problem is more complicated than that. The mirror would have to be capable of handling the power in this beam; that is, the mirror itself would vaporize if it was not capable of handling the high level of power lasers like these produce.These lasers are not the pocket pointers that most people are used to which can be easily reflected by mirrors. If you have ever seen footage of these types of lasers, they can punch fist sized holes in a couple of inches of steel in a matter of seconds. These are "serious" killers. The "sci-fi" depictions of lasers like this is skewed towards complete inaccuracy.Second, as to recharging by solar cells that from this beam, they, too, would also have to be capable of handling the power produced by lasers like these. AFAIK, no such solar cells exist. This laser would vaporize most solar cells before you get any useful power out of them.Even if the target ship were build of highly polished stainless steel, or some other similarly highly reflecting surface, a laser like this would likely be capable of burning through that simply because there is so much energy in the beam - enough to vaporize almost anything that it comes in contact with.Perhaps a better choice of material would be a ceramic, like alumina, with a "diffuse" surface that scatters, rather than reflects, the laser light. Even so, keep a laser like this focused on the same spot for long enough, it would likely burn through even that. However, this is a ship that does not exist, and would likely be built only at an astronomical cost.[/citation]
Yeah, that's true. If mirrors could reflect these lasers, then they would just cover enemy vessels in mirrors to reflect the fire of the laser gun... haha

 

[Supertrek32]

Mirrors won't work against something like this. Nothing is 100% reflective, and the "small" amount of energy that would be absorbed would still be enough to destroy the mirror. On top of that, it also greatly depends on the wavelength of light being used. You'd have to develop a mirror that reflects the wavelength of light used by this laser.

It's also worth bringing up that some materials react to certain wavelengths very vigorously while doing when hit by others. An easy example is microwaves, which excite water molecules (and doing so heat your food). Meanwhile, visible light is higher-energy, but you don't die when you turn on a lightbulb.

On a final note, it's considered a defensive system because of the long down-time between shots. It takes quite a while to recharge the capacitors to fire these things. It's just not suitable as an offensive weapon. I'd compare this to a .50 cal sniper, while normal armaments are an M16. The .50 is long range, accurate, very powerful, and very scary - it's just not the ideal weapon to storm up a street with.

 

[K2N hater]

I guess it slices planes like a hot knife on butter.