Cyprus-Forum.com

[Nikitas]

"The [US] Defense Department is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to develop lasers that can blast rockets, artillery, and mortars out of the sky. By the end of the year [2008], military researchers promise, those lasers should be at battlefield strength. "

This is from recent news release. Lasers pulse at the speed of light, thus obviating any need for complex target tracking systems. If they can bring down a rocket they can bring down a jet plane. What does the above mean for costly air forces and the vast infrastructures (airports, fuel depots, maintenance, pilot training) that keep them going?

[bill cobbett]

As all will be aware, lasers of the sort and power N describes have been a dream for many decades. I wasn't aware that they were nearing reality. A source please for interested members?

(Bet there are some really peculiar alien sights over southern Nevada testing this out !)

[Oracle]

Yeah... This reminds me of Reagan's "Star Wars" programme a few decades ago ...

Regression

[Get Real!]

I recently watched an in-depth documentary on the subject and apparently the researchers are full of shit because it takes enormous amounts of power to generate a powerful enough beam to last a few seconds let alone do anything useful with it.

Of course all that could change with alternative sources of power because what I saw was a huge room of gigantic conventional generators struggling to sustain a mini beam!

[Oracle]

I recently watched an in-depth documentary on the subject and apparently the researchers are full of shit because it takes enormous amounts of power to generate a powerful enough beam to last a few seconds let alone do anything useful with it.

Of course all that could change with alternative sources of power because what I saw was a huge room of gigantic conventional generators struggling to sustain a mini beam!

Large Hadron Collider ... baby!

Opposite spin and a massive collision, deep underground. Primeval ... Cool!

[pantheman]

I recently watched an in-depth documentary on the subject and apparently the researchers are full of shit because it takes enormous amounts of power to generate a powerful enough beam to last a few seconds let alone do anything useful with it.

Of course all that could change with alternative sources of power because what I saw was a huge room of gigantic conventional generators struggling to sustain a mini beam!

Why does it need a fews seconds? The beam can be pulsed.

I suppose it depends on the material used to produce the said laser beam.

Gas, semiconductor, ruby etc etc.

Whilst in uni experimenting with the stuff, I used to punch holes in razor blades with a small desktop ruby laser. Pulsed in microseconds. Amazing, imagine that hitting the fuel tank of a plane??

I think that these weapons will be the next generation... God help us all.

[Get Real!]

I recently watched an in-depth documentary on the subject and apparently the researchers are full of shit because it takes enormous amounts of power to generate a powerful enough beam to last a few seconds let alone do anything useful with it.

Of course all that could change with alternative sources of power because what I saw was a huge room of gigantic conventional generators struggling to sustain a mini beam!

Why does it need a fews seconds? The beam can be pulsed.

I suppose it depends on the material used to produce the said laser beam.

Gas, semiconductor, ruby etc etc.

Whilst in uni experimenting with the stuff, I used to punch holes in razor blades with a small desktop ruby laser. Pulsed in microseconds. Amazing, imagine that hitting the fuel tank of a plane??

I think that these weapons will be the next generation... God help us all.

I’m not saying it can only last a few seconds but that a lot of power was required per second rendering it unfeasible with current technology… sorry for the confusion.

[Nikitas]

I did a lot of research last year on this, and there is a joint US-Israeli project which has been tested succesfully. The size of the unit is projected to be no bigger than a 40 foot container truck.

As for current use of lasers, I have had metal designs laser cut at the local machine shop here in Athens. They can cut up to 3 mm of stainless steel cleanly with no need for further finishing. This is definitely not a star wars fantasy, it is the kind of technology you see at every industrial exhibition. And I can assure GR that they do not need a roomful of generators to work!

The source of the original quote is the National Academies news item published by Yahoo news.

But the obvious point is that if the system is so near to actual use then it does make air forces obsolete. Turkey recently announced that it will buy another 140 F16s, bringing its total to 500 planes. Put the two bits of info together and think.

[Get Real!]

As for current use of lasers, I have had metal designs laser cut at the local machine shop here in Athens. They can cut up to 3 mm of stainless steel cleanly with no need for further finishing. This is definitely not a star wars fantasy, it is the kind of technology you see at every industrial exhibition. And I can assure GR that they do not need a roomful of generators to work!

Nikita, the industrial laser cutters should run off three-phase generators… no? How else do they acquire their power? Imagine a much larger beam that can extend far longer to strike moving objects at supersonic speeds... that's one hell of a challenge!

[Nikitas]

Well GR, apparently the challenge has been met. Two years ago the joint US-Israeli project had a very high reate of success in hitting artillery shells and missiles. In the two years since the trials progress must have been made for the US army to announce a probable deployment this year.

And again, the question is if the system would make the jet bomber obsolete, at least against adversaries who have the new system.