Not nearly 100%! The generator will likely manage upwards of 90% easily but with the laser anything better than 15% is apparently excellent (for a solid state laser). Assuming the system taps 20MW from the shaft for a multi-MW beam that means you have to somehow dissipate around 17MW of thermal output! Then there’s the thorny issue of weight and size (it’s not just the laser after all but also the optics), I’d say these two issues will likely combine to make lasers on tactical fighter aircraft a relatively distant proposition still, despite the breakthrough for powergeneration that the drive shaft represents.
The problem with a 20MW generator is the weight.
How much tons weight a 20MW generator?
Gyroscope forces should not be underestimated.
Lower revs (fan speed) caused more generator weight!
The apu revs with 60000UPM to produce 50kW.
A diode laser would be feasible with 50% effectiveness.
Even then a F-35 would explode with each 20MW shot.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/micro_stories.pl?ACCT=683194&TICK=RTN4&STORY=/www/story/12-09-2002/0001854465&EDATE=Dec+9,+2002
Raytheon Selected for 25 Kilowatt High Power Laser Development Contract
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Dec. 9 /PRNewswire/ — Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN)
has been selected to participate in the demonstration of a 25 kilowatt (kW)
solid state laser, a stepping stone to developing a weapons-grade laser.
The $16.9 million Joint Program Research Development Announcement has
requirements from all three services and is managed by the Air Force Research
Laboratory in Albuquerque, N.M.
“This contract is big step on the path to a 100 kW laser, which is truly
weapons grade,” said Michael Booen, Raytheon’s vice president of Directed
Energy Weapons. “The 25kW laser will represent an initial laser capability
with promising military utility.”
Raytheon’s High Energy Laser Lab in El Segundo, Calif., is supporting
development with the company’s Directed Energy Weapons product line, based in
Tucson, Ariz.
This contract includes funding for two phases with an option for a third.
Phase 1 is a 14-month lab demonstration of the feasibility of scaling up the
proposed technology to “on the order of 10 kW” with a high quality beam
(defined as 1.5 times diffraction limited or 1.5 xDL). Ten months after Phase
1, Phase 2 must demonstrate 25 kW in the lab at 1.5 xDL and show how it would
achieve brassboard, or pre-production, capability. Phase 3 is a separately
funded option to deliver a 25 kW brassboard to a government lab 12 months
after Phase 2.
“We need to demonstrate very high quality and efficient beam at the
highest power to date,” said Chan McKearn, business development director for
High Energy Lasers. “Our band of solid state laser visionaries has been
working toward this for 10 years. We relish the challenge.”
Raytheon’s High Energy Laser team, with support from HRL Laboratories, has
pioneered solid state laser research and development in three areas: diode-
pumped lasers, Yb:YAG (Ytterbium YAG) material for lasers, and coherent change
detection, a process of maximizing high quality beams. All these developments
support the creation of small, efficient lasers well-suited to weaponized
laser applications.
Thus far in 2002, Raytheon has demonstrated a 2.65 kW solid state laser,
delivered the kilowatt class TILL for the Airborne Laser program, and
delivered the first diode-pumped production lasers for the ASQ-228 Advanced
Targeting FLIR targeting pod.
With headquarters in Lexington, Mass., Raytheon Company is a global
technology leader in defense, government and commercial electronics, and
business and personal aircraft.
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