Drones Move the Laser Industry

3Ddreamer · 2014-12-11T01:48:22

Hi, There is continuous arms race among opposing weapons technologies. I am wondering how the world will be in the arms race of this century. The USA Pentagon has the approval to push the envelope in developing and deploying technologies which are defensive and hopefully effective. An example is the anti-ballistic missile shield technologies. There are already operational high power lasers aboard large jet aircraft. Will we see a time when all airborne means of carrying weapons will be extremely vulnerable to being shot to the ground? Are we seeing the beginning of the dominance of defensive weapons to control the air? Take a look at this: http://theweek.com/article/index/266871/the-us-marines-are-developing-laser-weapons-heres-why

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Started by 3Ddreamer October 20, 2014 03:47 PM

13 comments, last by 3Ddreamer 9 years, 11 months ago

3Ddreamer

Author

3,826

October 28, 2014 07:57 PM

Gama rays will also kill all organic life within 500 meters ... So firing one of those things will wipe out all life on your ship, and the enemy craft at the same time.

X-Ray exposure can be a bit longer before you fall over dead - however you still have the same problem of irradiating your own ship .

X-Rays and gamma rays can be focused thru a beam. There is no residual radiation, either at the point of release or around the target. Robot aircraft will deliver such attacks with no danger to our people.

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jefferytitan

2,525

October 28, 2014 08:21 PM

X-Rays and gamma rays can be focused thru a beam. There is no residual radiation, either at the point of release or around the target. Robot aircraft will deliver such attacks with no danger to our people.

I mostly agree with you. Depending upon the construction of the laser there may be some leakage from the reflection chamber, I don't know if it's possible to make a perfect gamma reflector. But it's certainly more like the danger of sitting next to an operating microwave oven than being inside that same oven.

I think targeting, beam spread and power loss due to atmospheric moisture etc would be significant problems. I think you could do a lot of damage with a powerful enough continuous beam laser, because minor aiming errors would actually help you slice bits off. But from what I know the most usable lasers are pulse lasers, so you have a significant risk of making a bunch of inconsequential millimetre sized holes (or missing totally).

RLS0812

3,045

October 28, 2014 09:09 PM

1: Lasers are not perfect. There is always "fallout" around the emitter. You could eliminate the risk by using 0.33 meter thick lead walls.

2: The further away a laser is from it's target, the larger it's cone becomes ... this depends on how focused the laser is on a specific spot.

3: The radiation would scatter when it hit the target, at a faster rate than IR radiation ( heat ) would ... the AOE could be huge with gamma radiation .

Note: On this topic I am only educated in nuclear technology - I do not much about X-Rays .

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Hodgman

52,718

October 28, 2014 10:41 PM

Interestingly, some industrial lasers that we use now are the failed attempts of the USSR to produce viable laser weapons :D

Keep in mind that we've already deployed energy beam weapons in war zones though, for use against dangerous/endangered civilians and enemy combatants; In the Afghanistan war, and apparently (officially denied) in the Gulf War II Fallujah massacre.

These aren't designed to cut/blast holes in things though - just to slowly cook the outer half-millimeter of your skin to temporarily incapacitate you.
This kind of weapon can fit on a suv-sized vehicle and never versions have ranges over 5km... So it sounds feasible to put one on a low flying drone for area-control/denial purposes.

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