chinese laser weapon development
- Thread starter maozedong
- Start date
escobar
Brigadier
According to an avid CJDBY PLA laser watcher the ship-based point-defense laser already began preliminary testing onboard in Shanghai. Right now the laser only outputs 2KW because a higher wattage might interfere with the detection sensor on the receiving end. Intensity tests will range from 500m to 10 km.
Watch this space!
If they're keeping it at 2kW, then I'm very interested in what the max output actually is. Last I checked, we're up to 40kW for a laser weapon. From reports, it took that level of power to burn through 40mm steel plates in a few seconds. Same report mentioned that a 10kW laser hit a target over 2km away, so it's interesting to see them try for up to 10km.
The max output is probably in the 50-100 kw range. The laser being used is a CO2 laser. We know that there are many CO2 lasers that are in the mega-watt ranges. I think what they are still tinkering with the optical alignment and targeting right now. If they use a very intense beam then the sensors used to measure scattering and beam intensity at the receiving end might be damaged. Once they start weapons trial then they are going to amp up the wattage accordingly.
around mid-2000s,article appear in blog written by academy of science, article stated that 50kw laser is being develop and sufficent energy to shoot down a cruise missile.
More interesting development I linked from CJDBY.
It is professor Yijun Zhao's 50th teaching anniversary. They recently released a compilation of all the articles he wrote. I have picked out a few interesting ones since it will take forever going through all of them:
Just going by the titles we can conclude that:
1) A significant portion of Professor Zhao's work is dedicated to how high energy lasers damage metal, glass, and other materials. Some of them do deal with sensor blinding but the vast majority dealt with physical damages.
2) Professor Zhao has a relatively wide interest. His work on the satellite is especially interesting since it implies physically damaging the satellites (hard-kill) with continuous high energy laser exposures. This means that China's ASAT weapon could potentially melt through any lens shielding on spy satellites and may even be used against communication satellites since they deal physical damage.
3) I recall that a certain big shrimp mentioned that the J-20 will employ a weapon that will shoot down enemy missiles by damaging the infrared sensors. If such a weapon ends up being deployed it will benefit from professor Zhao's research.
It is professor Yijun Zhao's 50th teaching anniversary. They recently released a compilation of all the articles he wrote. I have picked out a few interesting ones since it will take forever going through all of them:
Just going by the titles we can conclude that:
1) A significant portion of Professor Zhao's work is dedicated to how high energy lasers damage metal, glass, and other materials. Some of them do deal with sensor blinding but the vast majority dealt with physical damages.
2) Professor Zhao has a relatively wide interest. His work on the satellite is especially interesting since it implies physically damaging the satellites (hard-kill) with continuous high energy laser exposures. This means that China's ASAT weapon could potentially melt through any lens shielding on spy satellites and may even be used against communication satellites since they deal physical damage.
3) I recall that a certain big shrimp mentioned that the J-20 will employ a weapon that will shoot down enemy missiles by damaging the infrared sensors. If such a weapon ends up being deployed it will benefit from professor Zhao's research.
New info on Chinese DEW development:
1)
The National Defense University (same place where professor Zhao works at) developed a fiber optics laser with an upper wattage of 73 kW. The previous record, 36 kW per fiber, was set by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
The rest of the article elaborate on a previous project the fiber optics team participated on, which involved laser-based gyroscopes used as guidance systems on missiles.
2)
This is a new article lauding the husband and wife team of Doctor Yuan and Doctor Zhang, who both worked on high powered microwave weapons used to disable incoming anti-radiation missiles.
1)
The National Defense University (same place where professor Zhao works at) developed a fiber optics laser with an upper wattage of 73 kW. The previous record, 36 kW per fiber, was set by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
The rest of the article elaborate on a previous project the fiber optics team participated on, which involved laser-based gyroscopes used as guidance systems on missiles.
2)
This is a new article lauding the husband and wife team of Doctor Yuan and Doctor Zhang, who both worked on high powered microwave weapons used to disable incoming anti-radiation missiles.
I think this one is related to the Chinese attempt at Inertial Fusion, similar to National Ignition Facility of Lawrence Livermore Lab. Hence the need for Fiber to focus multiple beams on a single object, for normal beam weapons, we're way past 73kW.
Here is Mini prototype for the larger facility, personally, I think it's the wrong approach to fusion power. (though it does help in modeling nuclear weapons, perhaps it is its real purpose)
Here is ppt from way back in 2006
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