chinese laser weapon development

A

anzha

Captain
Registered Member
Jura said:
yeah, quote,

Laser skeptics sometimes note that laser proponents over the years have made numerous predictions about when lasers might enter service with DOD, and that these predictions repeatedly have not come to pass. Viewing this record of unfulfilled predictions, skeptics might argue that “lasers are X years in the future—and always will be.”

unquote, link is inside Sep 9, 2015
Click to expand...

The same is always said about fusion energy. It should be noted though that lasers, like fusion energy, often get starved of funding periodically.

TRW built Alpha, a megawatt class HF laser designed as for use in orbit in a satellite. It was successfully tested in a vacuum chamber in 1993. The next step would have been to build it to place into space for testing. It's funding was zeroed out in the Clinton years. HF lasers do not emit in the 'window' but reduce the cost of fuel: hydrogen is cheaper than deuterium. It would have been far more useful for forcing aircraft under 30k ft and, thus, limiting their range. Against a peer, not so useful because China or Russia could take out the sats. Enforcing a no fly zone, otoh...

THEL moved forward only as a way to protect Israel from katyushas and whatnot under Clinton. It was discontinued under Bush. The Iraq War funding and technological leakage were both concerns.

The stop and go nature of laser funding has always been an issue, but once you have something in the arsenal, getting it upgraded is much, much easier.
 
siegecrossbow

siegecrossbow

General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Jura said:
yeah, quote,

Laser skeptics sometimes note that laser proponents over the years have made numerous predictions about when lasers might enter service with DOD, and that these predictions repeatedly have not come to pass. Viewing this record of unfulfilled predictions, skeptics might argue that “lasers are X years in the future—and always will be.”

unquote, link is inside Sep 9, 2015
Click to expand...

This may be changing with the advent of fiber optics laser.

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The tight connection between the inner and outer cores ensures that most of the pump light is absorbed by ytterbium atoms. And in 2016, IPG Photonics reported converting just over half of the electric power to light in the lab, well above what you could get from the bulk crystal or glass of older, solid-state laser schemes. Generating light in the long, thin fiber core also produces a beam that can be focused tightly over long distances, which is exactly what’s needed for delivering lethal energy to targets a few kilometers away. Because fiber lasers are thin—with diameters in the range of 125 to 400 micrometers—they have a high surface-to-volume ratio, allowing them to dissipate heat much faster than shorter and thicker lasers.
Click to expand...

This has been reflected by the fact that all the new laser weapons in development by the U.S., Russia, China, U.K., Israel, Germany, etc. employ fiber optics laser.
 
Jura The idiot

Jura The idiot

General
anzha said:
The same is always said about fusion energy. It should be noted though that lasers, like fusion energy, often get starved of funding periodically.

TRW built Alpha, a megawatt class HF laser designed as for use in orbit in a satellite. It was successfully tested in a vacuum chamber in 1993. The next step would have been to build it to place into space for testing. It's funding was zeroed out in the Clinton years. HF lasers do not emit in the 'window' but reduce the cost of fuel: hydrogen is cheaper than deuterium. It would have been far more useful for forcing aircraft under 30k ft and, thus, limiting their range. Against a peer, not so useful because China or Russia could take out the sats. Enforcing a no fly zone, otoh...

THEL moved forward only as a way to protect Israel from katyushas and whatnot under Clinton. It was discontinued under Bush. The Iraq War funding and technological leakage were both concerns.

The stop and go nature of laser funding has always been an issue, but once you have something in the arsenal, getting it upgraded is much, much easier.
Click to expand...
OK just to be fair, the quote from Sep 9, 2015 goes on like this:

"Laser proponents acknowledge the record of past unfulfilled predictions, but argue that the situation has now changed because of rapid advancements in SSL technology and a shift from earlier ambitious goals (such as developing megawatt-power lasers for countering targets at tens or hundreds of miles) to more realistic goals (such as developing kilowatt-power lasers for countering targets at no more than a few miles).

Laser proponents might argue that laser skeptics are vulnerable to what might be called cold plate syndrome (i.e., a cat that sits on a hot plate will not sit on a hot plate again—but it will not sit on a cold plate, either)."
 
siegecrossbow

siegecrossbow

General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Jura said:
it was interesting to read the articleanyway it sounded like a LockMart ad to me;

not sure why by now they wouldn't have scaled up to several-hundred kW (this should've been "viable" according to that article)
Click to expand...

There are three reasons. Funding, funding, and funding.
 
Jura The idiot

Jura The idiot

General
siegecrossbow said:
There are three reasons. Funding, funding, and funding.
Click to expand...
I don't mean to post any Conspiracy LOL but what if the Pentagon knew about some cheap reflective stuff (LOL! I don't mean a mirror) which,

if used to 'coat' a missile, would 'quench' most of a laser's power

(if it were true, it'd be reasonable to assume Opfor did just that)
 
A

anzha

Captain
Registered Member
Jura said:
I don't mean to post any Conspiracy LOL but what if the Pentagon knew about some cheap reflective stuff (LOL! I don't mean a mirror) which,

if used to 'coat' a missile, would 'quench' most of a laser's power

(if it were true, it'd be reasonable to assume Opfor did just that)
Click to expand...

It doesn't work like that. Keeping a surface mirror perfect is really hard on the battlefield. HELSTF tested a spinning reflective surface on a cylinder back in the 80s to see if it would prevent the laser from killing a missile or whatnot before impact. MIRACL still cut through the target in no time flat. Similar tests were done repeatedly with smaller lasers.

There's a reason why there are 'windows' on the pointer tracker systems. The mirrors need to be kept pristine. Bugs, dust, etc. will ruin the mirror once the laser fires. Additionally, the mirrors for lasers are designed specifically for a particular wavelength. A different wavelength laser would cut through it just fine.
 
Jura The idiot

Jura The idiot

General
anzha said:
It doesn't work like that. Keeping a surface mirror perfect is really hard on the battlefield. HELSTF tested a spinning reflective surface on a cylinder back in the 80s to see if it would prevent the laser from killing a missile or whatnot before impact. MIRACL still cut through the target in no time flat. Similar tests were done repeatedly with smaller lasers.

There's a reason why there are 'windows' on the pointer tracker systems. The mirrors need to be kept pristine. Bugs, dust, etc. will ruin the mirror once the laser fires. Additionally, the mirrors for lasers are designed specifically for a particular wavelength. A different wavelength laser would cut through it just fine.
Click to expand...
9 minutes ago
Jura said:
... I don't mean a mirror ...
Click to expand...
 
A

anzha

Captain
Registered Member
Jura said:
9 minutes ago
Click to expand...


If you are talking about an ablative material, it's possible, but the power levels and densities on target are pretty high. You could do something like a space shuttle tile, but the costs are enormous.

A far better solution to deal with lasers, at least until they are ubiquitous is to send in swarms of smaller, cheaper suicide drones. It matters little if the laser bags 95% of them, if there are 100 coming and they each carry the equivalent of a 80mm mortar warhead.
 
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