Laser/Beam weapons

[cobra commando]

US Navy evaluates laser weapons to augment ground- based air defense counter- UAS capability


US Navy evaluates laser weapons to augment ground-based air defense counter-UAS capability | Defense Update:

 

[cobra commando]

High Energy Fiber Laser (HEFL)

 

[cobra commando]

US Navy to test powerful, mobile laser weapon against drones | Defense Update:

 

[cobra commando]

Boeing Laser Demonstrator Destroys Targets through Wind and Fog

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Sept. 4, 2014 – Boeing [NYSE: BA] and the U.S. Army have proven the capabilities of the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD) in maritime conditions, successfully targeting a variety of aerial targets at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. "Under windy, rainy and foggy weather conditions in Florida, these engagements were the most challenging to date with a 10- kilowatt laser on HEL MD," said Dave DeYoung, Boeing Directed Energy Systems director. "As proven at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in 2013 and at Eglin Air Force Base this spring, HEL MD is reliable and capable of consistently acquiring, tracking and engaging a variety of targets in different environments, demonstrating the potential military utility of directed energy systems." In these recent demonstrations, HEL MD used a 10-kilowatt, high energy laser installed on an Oshkosh tactical military vehicle. The demonstrator is the first mobile, high-energy laser, counter rocket, artillery and mortar (C-RAM) platform to be built and demonstrated by the U.S. Army. "With capabilities like HEL MD, Boeing is demonstrating that directed energy technologies can augment existing kinetic strike weapons and offer a significant reduction in cost per engagement," said DeYoung. "With only the cost of diesel fuel, the laser system can fire repeatedly without expending valuable munitions or additional manpower." Throughout the two series of demonstrations, Boeing achieved all performance objectives on schedule, successfully engaging more than 150 aerial targets including 60 mm mortars and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The next step will be to install a 50 or 60-kilowatt laser on HEL MD to demonstrate counter RAM and UAV capability at this tactically significant power level.
Boeing Laser Demonstrator Destroys Targets through Wind and Fog

 

[cobra commando]

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 15, 2014 – Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT], in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the University of Notre Dame, has demonstrated the airworthiness of a new beam control turret being developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and AFRL to give 360-degree coverage for high- energy laser weapons operating on military aircraft. A research aircraft equipped with the Aero- adaptive Aero-optic Beam Control (ABC) turret conducted eight flights in Michigan. "These initial flight tests validate the performance of our ABC turret design, which is an enabler for integrating high energy lasers on military aircraft," said Doug Graham, vice president of advanced programs, Strategic and Missile Defense Systems, Lockheed Martin Space Systems. The ABC turret system is designed to allow high-energy lasers to engage enemy aircraft and missiles above, below and behind the aircraft. Lockheed Martin's flow control and optical compensation technologies counteract the effects of turbulence caused by the protrusion of a turret from an aircraft's fuselage. All turret components met U.S. Air Force and Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness requirements. Subsequent flight tests over the next year will demonstrate the turret in increasingly complex operations. Lockheed Martin has pioneered the development and demonstration of high-energy laser capabilities for more than 30 years and has made advances in areas such as precision pointing and control, line-of-sight stabilization and adaptive optics and high-power fiber lasers.

Lockheed Martin Conducts Flight Tests Of Aircraft Laser Turret For Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency � Lockheed Martin

 

[cobra commando]

US Laser Weapons Inch Closer To Deployment

The US Navy will outfit the USS Ponce, an amphibious vessel with a Laser Weapon System (LaWS) and will begin sea testing in the Persian Gulf later this year heralding an era of practical laser weapons which may ultimately replace short range cannons and missiles. After it completes testing it should be capable of shooting down drones or disabling small attack boats at an energy cost of just $1 per shot.Rather fittingly for a futuristic weapons system, LaWS will be fired using a "video game- like controller", Reuters reported in April. The U.S. military is investing heavily into the development of weapons straight out of Star Wars. The US Navy announced in April that it is moving ahead with plans to deploy the first ever combat laser weapon and US Navy engineers are also said to be making final adjustments to a laser weapon prototype. "This is a revolutionary capability," said Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm.
Matthew Klunder. "It's absolutely critical that we get this out to sea with our Sailors for these trials, because this very affordable technology is going to change the way we fight and save lives.", according a US Navy press release in April this year. Companies such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing lead the laser development fray with a number of successful programs. Earlier this month, Lockheed Martin, in partnership with the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the University of Notre Dame, demonstrated the airworthiness of a new beam control turret being developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and AFRL to give 360-degree coverage for high-energy laser weapons operating on military aircraft.


Read more:
US Laser Weapons Inch Closer To Deployment

 

[sgarg]

Re: US Laser Weapons Inch Closer To Deployment

India should avoid spending money on such weapons.

The real useful laser weapon is a land based or ship based massive size weapon to disable orbiting satellites.

For missiles, the utility is questionable. It is very hard to acquire and track a small maneuvering warhead. Another difficulty is that enemy can launch multiple missiles at you simultaneously thus saturating your air defences. This is what is very likely in a nuclear attack. The enemy may launch a dozen missiles on the same trajectory, mostly with dummy warheads. The missiles are much cheaper compared to missile defence.

The better option is offensive weapons and the strategy to cause greater losses to enemy.

 

[sgarg]

The Americans have the money so they are spending it, many times on meaningless and wasteful purposes.

India does not have the money. We must always remember to not get lured into disastrous pursuits.

 

[Bheeshma]

KALI and DURGA are both real though may not be weaponized yet. India will spend as it sees fit because it is stupid to be left behind in technology driven future.

 

[Twinblade]

India should avoid spending money on such weapons.

India does not have the money. We must always remember to not get lured into disastrous pursuits.

Aditya tech demonstrator with a 25 KW gas dynamic laser exists and it has been successfully tested against airborne targets.

 

[cobra commando]

Navy Tests New Vehicle- Mounted Laser Weapon

 

[Godless-Kafir]

Anyone seen this? Is this Kali or a laser experiment?

 

[power_monger]

Anyone seen this? Is this Kali or a laser experiment?

The title of the video itself suggest that this is KALI. BTW,This is great. If the scale is extended to 300-400Kms,we can effectivly create Ballistic missile defense capability during Boost phase.

 

[sgarg]

Aditya tech demonstrator with a 25 KW gas dynamic laser exists and it has been successfully tested against airborne targets.

There is a long road from tech demonstrator to usable weapon.

There is a lot that India has to achieve in rocketry and weapons to improve India defence.

Even for USA and Israel, the impact of laser weapons will be small.

 

[power_monger]

There is a long road from tech demonstrator to usable weapon.

There is a lot that India has to achieve in rocketry and weapons to improve India defence.

Even for USA and Israel, the impact of laser weapons will be small.

Fyi,we can now destroy a ballistic missile within 7Km range using the same tech demonstrator.US had indeed destroyed a ballistic missile using laser weapon in 2010.
I think by 2025 these technologies along with Directed energy weapons will grow big.if DRDO does not work on this now, we will raising a tender worth 100 billion dollar in 2030 requesting for same weapons. farsightedness helps many time.

Any technology takes time to advance. just Imagine the development of computers which went from Room sized to hand held.
Whats important is not to miss the technology train.Have patience and encourage the newer technology growths.

 

[sgarg]

@power_monger, Tracking a fast moving target and focusing is not an easy task. The tests are usually simplified to achieve results. US has been working on Star Wars since early 1980s.

You have to understand the difficulty of tracking as tracking is mechanical.

A missile can change its course in flight.

 

[power_monger]

@power_monger, Tracking a fast moving target and focusing is not an easy task. the tests are usually simplified to achieve results. US has been working on Star Wars since early 1980s.

Fine.We are working on it from 1990. We are now seeing some kind of tangible results. dropping this research now is a no brainer.

 

[sgarg]

Fine.We are working on it from 1990. We are now seeing some kind of tangible results. dropping this research now is a no brainer.

Please continue with the research by all means. You are right that such research is required.
But please understand that this is a long term project with no clear endpoint.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Watch the Navy's New Ship-Mounted Laser Cannon Kill a Drone | WIRED

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Supersonic Laser-Propelled Rockets



Supersonic Laser-Propelled Rockets
by Staff Writers
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 30, 2014


The effectiveness of current laser-propulsion techniques is limited by the instability of supersonic gas flow, caused by shock waves that "choke" the inlet of the nozzle, reducing thrust. Those effects can be reduced with the help of laser ablation, redirecting the plasma plume so that it flows close to the interior walls of a supersonic nozzle and significantly improving the overall thrust. Image courtesy Y.Rezunkov/IOIE.
Scientists and science fiction writers alike have dreamt of aircrafts that are propelled by beams of light rather than conventional fuels. Now, a new method for improving the thrust generated by such laser-propulsion systems may bring them one step closer to practical use.

The method, developed by physicists Yuri Rezunkov of the Institute of Optoelectronic Instrument Engineering, Russia and Alexander Schmidt of the Ioffe Physical Technical Institute in Saint Petersburg, Russia is described in The Optical Society's (OSA) journal Applied Optics.

Currently, the maximum speed of a spacecraft is limited by the amount of solid or liquid fuel that it can carry. Achieving higher speeds means that more fuel must be burned-fuel that, inconveniently, has to be carried by the craft and hefted into space.

These burdensome loads can be reduced, however, if a laser-one located at a remote location, and not actually on the spacecraft-were used to provide additional propulsive force.

A number of systems have been proposed that can produce such laser propulsion. One of the most promising involves a process called laser ablation, in which a pulsed laser beam strikes a surface, heats it up, and burns off material to create what is known as a plasma plume-a column of charged particles that flow off the surface.

The outflowing of that plasma plume-essentially, exhaust-generates additional thrust to propel the craft.

In their Applied Optics paper, Rezunkov and Schmidt describe a new system that integrates a laser-ablation propulsion system with the gas blasting nozzles of a spacecraft. Combining the two systems, the researchers found, can increase the speed of the gas flow out of the system to supersonic speeds while reducing the amount of burned fuel.

The researchers show that the effectiveness of current laser-propulsion techniques is limited by factors including the instability of supersonic gases as they flow through the gas nozzle, as well as the production of shock waves that "choke" the inlet of the nozzle, reducing thrust. But those effects can be reduced with the help of a laser-ablation plasma plume that is redirected so that it will flow close to the interior walls of the nozzle.

Coupling the ablation jet with supersonic gas flow through the nozzle, they find, significantly improves the overall thrust generated by the nozzle.

"Summarizing the data obtained, we can forecast the application of the supersonic laser propulsion techniques not only for launching small satellites to Earth orbits but also for additional acceleration of supersonic aircrafts to achieve Mach 10 and more," Rezunkov said.

"Supersonic Laser Propulsion," Y. Rezunkov and A. Schmidt, Applied Optics, Vol. 53, Issue 31, pp. I55-I62 (2014).