Military laser hits 105Kw

105 Kilowatts!

A good read. I can't even imagine the collateral damage.  

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/03/military-laser.html

Cheers, CC

Curiously_Coherent said:

105 Kilowatts!

A good read. I can't even imagine the [highlight]collateral damage[/highlight].  

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/03/military-laser.html

Cheers, CC

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Probably not much.
That isn't really much power considering what it takes to really obliterate armored vehicle or a missile in mid flight. If I remember correctly the chemical laser that was used on the C130(?) gunship used kilowatt class lasers for targeting and a megawatt class laser as the weapon laser.
Even then, lasers are much more precise than projectile based weapons and would only cause damage to the target, unlike high explosives, which obliterate everything within a short distance of the intended target. With increased accuracy, there will be less "collateral damage."

Good find.

Don’t forget this doesn’t make a sound and can’t be seen, this is FANTASTIC! I can only image the power something like when we apply it to pulsed lasers. Which will most defiantly have more combat potential.

Also, its not a chemical laser, much less electronics and hazardous materials are required.

If I where to choose, I would definitely go for the chemical oxygen laser.

Lethal fuel, lethal exhaust and about 1MW of laser! (Also lethal [smiley=evil.gif])

When the TO&E of an infantry squad includes six riflemen, two grenadiers, two SAW gunners and one laser gunner, I"ll know we've arrived.


Oh, and laser satellites.
If the space shuttle can take up a 100 ton Hubble telescope, it can take a terawatt laser up there.

SuicideKing said:

If the space shuttle can take up a 100 ton Hubble telescope, it can take a terawatt laser up there.

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Well, they better do it quick... shuttle gets retired next year  :-/ Next US space vehicle isn't scheduled to be ready until 2016, I think.

SuicideKing said:

If the space shuttle can take up a 100 ton Hubble telescope, it can take a terawatt laser up there.

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Sure, but they'll only be able to bring up enough chemicals for a single firing... Every time you want to fire the laser you'll need to send another shuttle full of chemicals.

from the article:
"At first, these electric lasers were weak. When the military started its Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) program in 2003, these easy-to-maintain lasters could barely produce more than 10 kilowatts "

Holy crap!
I admit 10kw isn't much against a tank, but you could pop an enemy infantryman's head like a pimple with that.

SuicideKing said:

from the article:
"At first, these electric lasers were weak. When the military started its Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) program in 2003, these easy-to-maintain lasters could barely produce more than 10 kilowatts "

Holy crap!
I admit 10kw isn't much against a tank, [highlight]but you could pop an enemy infantryman's  head like a pimple with that.[/highlight]

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Or like an egg in a microwave!  ;D

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfML6xv6FyI[/media]

This is a LASER, not a MASER. No one's been able to "pop" even a kernel of corn.

Cyparagon said:

This is a LASER, not a MASER. No one's been able to "pop" even a kernel of corn.

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Laser Induced Shock Waves and Vaporization in Biological Systems - Air Force office of Scientific Research

http://stinet.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=A476965&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf
"Conventional continuous wave and long pulse (nanosecond) laser ablation is used in many fields, such as materials processing and medicine. In these regimes the dominant process involved is the heating of the target material through the liquid phase to the vapour phase, resulting in expansion and expulsion of the desired target material. This is accompanied by heating and collateral damage to the surrounding area, the degree of which is determined by the rate of energy absorption and the rate of energy loss through thermal conduction in the material. Due to their high peak intensities, ultrashort (picosecond and femtosecond) pulses ablate material via the rapid creation of a plasma that absorbs the incident energy resulting in direct vaporisation from the target surface."

Basically, the super heating of skin and deeper flesh tissue (which is mostly comprised of water), flash vaporizes, creating an overpressure that seesk to escape via the same channel that created it. If this channel (the hole created by the laser) becomes blocked with material, this overpressure may create a violent failure of the target's external structural integrity.

A CW laser wouldn't "pop" anything (well, the fuel in a plane or a missile would explode, but that's different...), just burn a hole thru it.  However, a pulsed laser *could* cause explosive damage, if on a smaller scale, in the event of hitting enemy soldiers.

Even a tiny YAG laser like this produces a loud snap when it strikes a target (it does nothing to flesh because it doesn't have enough power + with near IR, like a red laser,  require more energy to damage things of similar color), so a minute amount of the material is being explosively vaporized.  With a 100KW YAG (which this battlefield laser essentially is, wavelength-wise, even though I believe they are using glass instead of YAG crystals due to heat dissipation issues), in pulsed mode (which the laser isn't, but could be made that way eventually), imagine the explosive damage to human flesh that would be capable of causing!  Probably not egg in microwave oven explosive, but surely enough to cause fatal internal damage due to exploding steam from vaporized tissue, literally a bullet of light.  


Note: the snap is a lot louder in real life than is picked up by the camera mike.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6VmzZuFwsk

Great discussion folks,

So if I understand you all correctly, the infantry uniform of the future may well be a kevlar-impregnated silver lamé jumpsuit, a full coverage mirrored helmet and a pair of Frothy's OD3 goggles. Shiny happy people indeed...

Maybe this is why terminators will be invented... No fleshy bits to explode. The end is nigh. (sigh) ;D

Cheers, CC

Maybe indirect vision eye-protection goggles will be standard issue now?

All I can say now is I want that laser streamlined to rifle size and I want an optional q-switching(or mode locking) firing mode. Powered by solar recharged lithium ion batteries.

I wonder what the legal implications of this are, a laser does not fit the definition of a gun or any other weapon; In fact the closest thing a laser comes close in legal definitions is an incendiary device...

Certainly not a "firearm", per se, but definately a deadly weapon.
Of course, a pencil could be construed as a "deadly weapon", if I jab it in someones eye.

Most State laws define a firearm as a missile launching device; thus a pistol, crossbow, slingshot and electromagnetic rail gun, could all fall under that definition, but a laser?

I can only imagine that they are going to end up being classified somewhere between a cattle prod and a flamethrower.