Military laser hits 105Kw

[Cyparagon]

Batteries that supply 200KW+? fat chance. That would require ~55,000A from a lithium cell.

 

[SuicideKing]

Maybe some kind of super capaciter. -Holds enough juice for one shot and gets ejected when another fresh cap is cycled from within an internal magazine.

Just like the empty cartriges from a gun are fed, fired and then ejected.

 

[ideas]

In the middle east they already start arming their vehicles and tanks with mirrors..

 

[SuicideKing]

In the middle east they already start arming their vehicles and tanks with mirrors..  

To protect them against vampires?

Mirrors won't protect them from lasers, though putting mirrors on tanks will make it much easier for the Hellfire missiles to find them, so I fully support their endeavors.

 

[bobobob121]

[quote author=SuicideKing link=1237408542/0#5 date=1237433428]If the space shuttle can take up a 100 ton Hubble telescope, it can take a terawatt laser up there.

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.
[/quote]


yea, down here in florida they had their last launch about a week ago

 

[Schrecken_Licht]

That's a common misconception about lasers and mirrors. The sort of lasers most of us here have will of course be easily deflected by either an ordinary back-silvered mirror or a first surface mirror.

A glass mirror would be utterly useless as a defense against a 100KW laser - most of the beam would go thru the glass and then melt the silvered backing and destroy whatever is under that surface. The glass would also melt soon after due to proximity to the backing being vaporized. A highly reflective polished metal surface would be a bit better, and would buy the target some time, but who wants to be on a battlefield gleaming like a Christmas ornament?!? What might help defend you from a laser would make you an easy target for conventional weapons. For every advantage, there is a disadvantage, and vice-versa. Also, everything, including a missile, would be dirty, and almost impossible to keep from getting that way. Dirt, even on a polished surface, would give the laser beam an easy pathway to start heating and destroying that surface.

A better bet would be a very thick surface. A cinder block wall would easily protect someone or something from the beam, at least for a few minutes. That works well on the ground but anything that flies is going to be weighed down by any sort of heavy duty shielding.

Another thought - the 1064nm wavelength of this laser raises some interesting and scary possibilities (compared with chemical lasers that are further down into the IR spectrum). As the beam would pass right thru ordinary un-tinted glass, enemy personnel in vehicles or aircraft could be killed almost instantly without even breaking the windshield or cockpit glass! Talk about popping a black balloon inside of a clear one!!!!

 

[paoki]

If they had spent all that effort and money in making something useful and not something designed to kill people...

 

[RA_pierce]

That's a common misconception about lasers and mirrors.  The sort of lasers most of us here have will of course be easily deflected by either an ordinary back-silvered mirror or a first surface mirror.

A glass mirror would be utterly useless as a defense against a 100KW laser - most of the beam would go thru the glass and then melt the silvered backing and destroy whatever is under that surface.  The glass would also melt soon after due to proximity to the backing being vaporized.  A highly reflective polished metal surface would be a bit better, and would buy the target some time, but who wants to be on a battlefield gleaming like a Christmas ornament?!?  What might help defend you from a laser would make you an easy target for conventional weapons.   For every advantage, there is a disadvantage, and vice-versa.  Also, everything, including a missile, would be dirty, and almost impossible to keep from getting that way.  Dirt, even on a polished surface, would give the laser beam an easy pathway to start heating and destroying that surface.

A better bet would be a very thick surface.  A cinder block wall would easily protect someone or something from the beam, at least for a few minutes.  That works well on the ground but anything that flies is going to be weighed down by any sort of heavy duty shielding.

Another thought - the 1064nm wavelength of this laser raises some interesting and scary possibilities (compared with chemical lasers that are further down into the IR spectrum).  As the beam would pass right thru ordinary un-tinted glass, enemy personnel in vehicles or aircraft could be killed almost instantly without even breaking the windshield or cockpit glass!  Talk about popping a black balloon inside of a clear one!!!!

Where does it say it's 1064nm?
How well a mirror deflects the beam from this laser is dependent on its wavelength. If I remember correctly, the aluminum backing on mirrors absorbs 10600 (co2 laser) so if it's deep in the IR (I'm assuming it is) spectrum I would assume a mirror would be useless even if it was first surface and free of all dust and debris.
Anyway, fitting a vehicle with mirrors is a very unsophisticated and impractical way to defend yourself.
Disguising yourself as Average Iraqi Joe and using guerrilla tactics would be better. If the enemy can't determine who he's fighting all his weapons and military strategies are useless.
Don't tell the terrorists. :

 

[SuicideKing]

If they had spent all that effort and money in making something useful and not something designed to kill people...

The first stick ever used as a lever, by proto-humans 150 thousand years ago, was probably first used as a club.

 

[Schrecken_Licht]

[quote author=Schrecken_Licht link=1237408542/16#21 date=1237952619]That's a common misconception about lasers and mirrors.  The sort of lasers most of us here have will of course be easily deflected by either an ordinary back-silvered mirror or a first surface mirror.

A glass mirror would be utterly useless as a defense against a 100KW laser - most of the beam would go thru the glass and then melt the silvered backing and destroy whatever is under that surface.  The glass would also melt soon after due to proximity to the backing being vaporized.  A highly reflective polished metal surface would be a bit better, and would buy the target some time, but who wants to be on a battlefield gleaming like a Christmas ornament?!?  What might help defend you from a laser would make you an easy target for conventional weapons.   For every advantage, there is a disadvantage, and vice-versa.  Also, everything, including a missile, would be dirty, and almost impossible to keep from getting that way.  Dirt, even on a polished surface, would give the laser beam an easy pathway to start heating and destroying that surface.

A better bet would be a very thick surface.  A cinder block wall would easily protect someone or something from the beam, at least for a few minutes.  That works well on the ground but anything that flies is going to be weighed down by any sort of heavy duty shielding.

Another thought - the 1064nm wavelength of this laser raises some interesting and scary possibilities (compared with chemical lasers that are further down into the IR spectrum).  As the beam would pass right thru ordinary un-tinted glass, enemy personnel in vehicles or aircraft could be killed almost instantly without even breaking the windshield or cockpit glass!  Talk about popping a black balloon inside of a clear one!!!!

Where does it say it's 1064nm?
[/quote]

It doesn't, I'm just making an educated guess here - this from the article:

"In its lab, south of Los Angeles, Northrop combines 32 garnet crystal "modules" into a "laser amplifier chains." Shine light-emitting diodes into 'em, and they start the laser chain-reaction, shooting out as much as 15 kilowatts of focused light. Combine all those beams into one, and you've got yourself a battlefield-strength ray. Northrop's JHPSSL lasers used seven chains to get to 105 kilowatts. But there's room, at least, for an eighth. Which means an even stronger blaster."

All solid state laser weapons in development that I have ever heard about are some variant of Nd:YAG, often Nd:Glass because it's hard (and more expensive) to grow large YAG crystals rather than glass-based crystals. If what they are using as a host material is doped with neodymium then the wavelength will be roughly or exactly 1064nm. Basically it's a monster version of the DPSS pointers most of us have, except it isn't frequency doubled to produce green. If that was the case, then you really would have a Death Star, green beam and all, right out of Star Wars! ;D

 

[Cyparagon]

It's not designed to kill people, it's designed to intercept enemy shells.