Laser to disable drone cameras

[V_for_Vlad]

Hi people

I need a piece of your advice. I’m located in Ukraine, and let’s say we’ve got some struggle with our neighbours in here. More specifically their observation drones (starting with classic DJI models and ending with more technically advanced military grade ones) are frequently flying over our territories.

We are exploring various options of disabling them now. Using lasers for disabling their cameras is one of the options. I do have a source to produce lasers of very high capacity, IR included, nevertheless I’d like to know from your opinion whether this idea is worth a shot or it’d be a dead end and we better focus on some other solutions.


Let’s say the distance between the laser source and drone is 200 metres (660feet). We don’t take into account the problem of targeting at that distance.

Appreciate your help!
V

 

[Unown (WILD)]

Sorry Vlad but we cannot condone such use for lasers. Any member who attempts to provide information on an illegal activity or destruction of someone else's property will be banned for a week. Sorry we cannot be of any help on the matter. I hope you find another solution to the problem.

 

[V_for_Vlad]

Sorry Vlad but we cannot condone such use for lasers. Any member who attempts to provide information on an illegal activity or destruction of someone else's property will be banned for a week. Sorry we cannot be of any help on the matter. I hope you find another solution to the problem.

Thanks for your reply, Unown. And excuse me for breaching guidelines. Don’t you mind if I leave my email, and if there’s a person enough qualified to provide me with answer to hit me up privately there?

If not, I’ll delete the thread, so not to spam.

 

[kecked]

Guess you can ban me then. Look dude if you use a laser to target a drone camera you are going to give your position away and get killed. Most likely you will miss the actual sensor. If You get a lucky strike you might damage the camera and leave some bad pixels but chances are low you will fry it and now they know where you are very accurately. Not a good idea unless you’re already in the battle and on the move. Wishing you eventual peace. Until then at least stay safe!

 

[V_for_Vlad]

Guess you can ban me then. Look dude if you use a laser to target a drone camera you are going to give your position away and get killed. Most likely you will miss the actual sensor. If You get a lucky strike you might damage the camera and leave some bad pixels but chances are low you will fry it and now they know where you are very accurately. Not a good idea unless you’re already in the battle and on the move. Wishing you eventual peace. Until then at least stay safe!

thank you for your reply. I don't want to harm your account, but I'd like to mention that we are looking for the device of a turret type - and laser would be one of it's elements (or another "weapon" that disables drones). If you look at our current warfare, there is a lot of trench-work with drones flying around. So basically everyone knows that you are there anyway.

Rather something like this, but laser instead of rifle.

Once again, it's just a brain-storming phase, we are looking at various solutions.

 

[Shmackitup]

I'd think a shotgun would probably work better but don't piss off Putin too much cuz he's got nukes!

 

[V_for_Vlad]

I'd think a shotgun would probably work better but don't piss off Putin too much cuz he's got nukes!

Lol. Valid point though. The most effective system, I've encountered was a German Rheinmetal (Germans know their shit).
But just imagine the scope of production facility that you need in order to create a new ammo type + weapon to shoot from it. Plus it's a full scale tank size, not a thing you'd put into a trench.

 

[V_for_Vlad]

I'd think a shotgun would probably work better but don't piss off Putin too much cuz he's got nukes!

as to putin, I’m pretty sure that we’ve passed all possible “red lines” already, and if he wanted to drop a nuke, he’d do that already

 

[Shmackitup]

as to putin, I’m pretty sure that we’ve passed all possible “red lines” already, and if he wanted to drop a nuke, he’d do that already

He might be waiting to send you a Christmas present....

 

[V_for_Vlad]

He might be waiting to send you a Christmas present....

Today is the first day with negative Celsius. You might be right. But we managed to sink most of their fleet which they used a lot last year for missiles, so it will be definitely less effective this year.

 

[atomd]

You most certainly can't disable a drone with any reasonable laser (exceptions: look at US military lasers) so I shouldn't be braking the rules.
To things that come to my mind:

• hundred+ J Q-switched pulse to hopefully fry all photosensitive devices on drone like cameras
• 100+W quasi-CW laser flashing at 5sec period with duty close to 50% to make pictures constantly black and white on all machines using automatic exposure.

 

[paul1598419]

Guess you can ban me then. Look dude if you use a laser to target a drone camera you are going to give your position away and get killed. Most likely you will miss the actual sensor. If You get a lucky strike you might damage the camera and leave some bad pixels but chances are low you will fry it and now they know where you are very accurately. Not a good idea unless you’re already in the battle and on the move. Wishing you eventual peace. Until then at least stay safe!

^ This.

 

[atomd]

Random research I pulled out suggests that CMOS sensors die around 0.4J/cm^2 for ns pulses and 0.02J/cm^2 for ps pulses. That's low enough to illuminate the entire drone with one, powerful pulse.

 

[WizardG]

Agree with the posters telling you pulsed lasers are the way to go here. One other possibility might be the infrared modules from nLight. Each is around 100W out the end of the fiber. If you could collimate the beams you could make a CW device of a couple kilowatts.

That being said, at the range you were talking about a shotgun would work very well. Slava!

 

[Unown (WILD)]

I warned you guys

 

[Unown (WILD)]

I'm cutting everyone's 7 day ban down to a day. I feel a first warning shouldn't be so harsh. But please next time listen. When it comes to illegal activities just stay out of it. Do it in private.