First came news of the USN breakthrough in railgun technology, now this..
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/unexpectedly-navys-superlaser-blasts-away-a-record/
The free-electron laser is one of the Navy’s highest-priority weapons programs, and it’s not hard to see why. “We’re fast approaching the limits of our ability to hit maneuvering pieces of metal in the sky with other maneuvering pieces of metal,” says Rear Adm. Nevin Carr, the Navy’s chief of research. The next level: “fighting at the speed of light and hypersonics” — that is, the free-electron laser and the Navy’s Mach-8 electromagnetic rail gun.
Say goodbye to an adversary’s antiship missiles, and prepare to fire bullets from 200 miles away, far from shoreline defenses. No wonder the Navy asked Congress to double its budget for directed-energy weapons this week to $60 million, most of which will go to the free-electron laser.
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Currently, the free-electron laser project produces the most-powerful beam in the world, able to cut through 20 feet of steel per second. If it gets up to its ultimate goal, of generating a megawatt’s worth of laser power, it’ll be able to burn through 2,000 feet of steel per second. Just add electrons.
By: tsz52 - 18th March 2011 at 16:57
I don’t think the focusing optics will have much fun at sea, or on something that vibrates as much as a helo.
I’d put my money on diode lasers, rather than FELs, for platforms as small as ships. You don’t need to tune it too much – just pick a frequency that propagates fairly well (there aren’t too many to choose from for this kind of work, in this environment), and some frequencies are atmospherically self-tuning to an extent.
You’ll be looking at achieving thermal kills against soft targets that don’t move too erratically for a long time before drilling hard kills are possible (where you’ll have to pulse the beam, realistically).
[Too much time spent researching SFnal weapons, when I should have been keeping up with my ships, planes, missiles and guns.:)]
By: Distiller - 18th March 2011 at 12:32
What I like about FEL is that it’s tuneable to atmospheric condition. But still it has to prove that it works in heavy rain, snow, and sandstorm.
By: SpudmanWP - 17th March 2011 at 20:26
Unfortunately particle accelerators take up a HUGE amount of room and energy.
Here’s a thought.
Mount a mirror on a CH-53K hovering at 10,000+ feet and bounce the laser from it. It’s range would be 115+ nm and would hit from above (better change of below the waterline hits). Ultimate fast watercraft defense 🙂
By: i.e. - 17th March 2011 at 18:39
…which imho particle accelerator type of weapons is more interesting.
By: tsz52 - 17th March 2011 at 17:40
I guess that most of you guys know this already, but just for the record: laser damage doesn’t work or scale in the way suggested by the article; due to the beam having to burn through the vapourised material in the hole that it creates (there’s a roughly 50:1 aspect ratio limit for non-pulsed beams, and the relative motion of the target to the beam is a pig of a problem).
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February 22, 2011 at 3:28 am