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US Navy ready to deploy laser for first time

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Re: US Navy ready to deploy laser for first time

#51

Post by anigbrowl »

adventured wrote: post #36
UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon#Distance_to_the_horizon

Yep. Depends on where the laser is fired from, and it depends on the target. Lasers can absolutely fire 300 to 600 km.

That's not much help if you're in a ship, where a) you'll be close to sea level and b) incoming missiles etc. will be flying low to avoid radar, rather than high up in the air where they can be convenient targets.

Lasers can fire all the way to the moon, and it might be a great idea to put military ones on top of mountains one day, depending on the weather, but if we're talking about lasers on ships...the USS Nimitz (the largest aircraft carrier class) has a height of about 36m above the waterline, so the distance to the horizon is something like 20km or ~13 miles.

Re: US Navy ready to deploy laser for first time

#52

Post by petermora »

Varcht wrote: post #12

It will be interesting to see what counter measures can be deployed against the lasers. Mirrors, heat shields?

The Retroreflector (link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroreflector) would reflect the laser back. However, I guess that laser with 30 kilowatt power would melt a cheap mirror.

Re: US Navy ready to deploy laser for first time

#54

Post by UnoriginalGuy »

Symmetry wrote: post #50
UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I bet with a bit of clever tech you can pull off some insane over-the-horizon railgun shots. The projectiles would only have the force of gravity/terminal velocity behind them unless they have been able to create an explosive railgun projectile (that doesn't explode on the launchpad due to the extremely high temperatures and other shock railguns apply to their projectiles). > Laser having +- zero flight time should…

I'd assume that even with a laser they'd do most of the targeting work with a radar, in which case it's pretty easy to distinguish the target from the background. Just look at the Doppler shifts of the returns and don't worry about anything that isn't moving with respect to the radar. Missiles might indeed hide below the horizon on their approach, but that makes them just as invisible to visual ship-based detection a…

Anti-ship missiles are designed specifically to make for small radar cross-sections and to fly below radar range.

Re: US Navy ready to deploy laser for first time

#55

Post by lutusp »

> For the Navy, it's not so much about the whiz-bang technology as it is about the economics of such armaments. Both costs pennies on the dollar compared with missiles and smart bombs, and the weapons can be fired continuously, unlike missiles and bombs, which eventually run out.

Why is no one mentioning what seems an obvious side effect of this class of weapon -- all the people who will be blinded by it once it goes into service? If this system goes into service and sees actual battlefield service, the opposing army will be quickly divided into two groups -- those wearing protective goggles, and those who can no longer make out their hands.

My conspiracy theory (isn't there always one of those?) is that laser weapons are a sneaky plot by the Braille publishing industry to spring back from their present near-irrelevance.

Re: US Navy ready to deploy laser for first time

#56

Post by spingsprong »

lutusp wrote: post #55

> For the Navy, it's not so much about the whiz-bang technology as it is about the economics of such armaments. Both costs pennies on the dollar compared with missiles and smart bombs, and the weapons can be fired continuously, unlike missiles and bombs, which eventually run out. Why is no one mentioning what seems an obvious side effect of this class of weapon -- all the people who will be blinded by it once it goes…

Weapons that are designed to blind have been illegal for a long time. And these types of lasers are so powerful that if one hit you in the face, you'd probably lose more than just your eyesight.

Re: US Navy ready to deploy laser for first time

#57

Post by Kynlyn »

kiba wrote: post #18
bluedino wrote: post #4

I can't decide which I'm more excited about, railguns or lasers. Do the Navy's railgun prototypes take a special type of ammunition or are they just launching precision machined blanks of common metal?

I am excited about future weapons, but I lament the existence of the military industrial complex and the military innovations that goes with them.

Do you also lament the creation of things like the fore-runner of the Internet that was created by the military industrial complex? Or the countless other advancements we use every day that were driven by military R&D? Or are you just completely and totally unaware of the significant contributions that military R&D has made to civilian lives?

Re: US Navy ready to deploy laser for first time

#58

Post by rthomas6 »

It's amazing all the cool defenses we get with all the money we pour into the military. I heard terrorists are in the process of killing billions of people by making them age until they die -- we ought to divert some defenses toward this huge and imminent threat. Also I think there might be some terrorists in the Alpha Centauri system. We need an intergalactic defense system just in case.

Re: US Navy ready to deploy laser for first time

#59

Post by dublinben »

wavefunction wrote: post #29
Havoc wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A laser weapon is not an over-the-horizon weapon I'd imagine the long term plan is to roll both lasers and rail guns. The combo seems ideal. Cheat laser shots to swat missiles and drones out of the surroundings whilst bombarding everything further away with the railgun. I bet with a bit of clever tech you can pull off some insane over-the-horizon railgun shots. >Phalanx CIWS which is also computer controlled, it is…

I assume rather than rail-guns, we will simply park laser batteries in NEO calibrated or perhaps just powerful enough to punch through the intervening atmosphere and water vapor to strike their targets. Of course I am just a sci-fi enthusiast in this regard, so take this comment for what it's worth... (I am not at all excited about the weaponization of space, but unfortunately feel it is inevitable given "politicians…

That would probably violate the Outer Space Treaty.

Re: US Navy ready to deploy laser for first time

#60

Post by lutusp »

spingsprong wrote: post #56
lutusp wrote: post #55

> For the Navy, it's not so much about the whiz-bang technology as it is about the economics of such armaments. Both costs pennies on the dollar compared with missiles and smart bombs, and the weapons can be fired continuously, unlike missiles and bombs, which eventually run out. Why is no one mentioning what seems an obvious side effect of this class of weapon -- all the people who will be blinded by it once it goes…

Weapons that are designed to blind have been illegal for a long time. And these types of lasers are so powerful that if one hit you in the face, you'd probably lose more than just your eyesight.

Yes, but as the range increases, the chance of death declines, but the chance of blinding continues out to a much greater range. If there's really an international law against weapons that blind, it's about the be seriously violated.
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