Comments on: Are laser weapons ready for duty?

newsmaker Los Alamos honcho Doug Beason says directed energy beams will soon be able to zap missiles in flight.

[dansterpower]

Amazing Technology?Star Trek is Here Now

Just Amazing Technology and Science.

A fascinating set of systems -- The evolution of Science, Science
Fiction and Imagination now coming to fruition.

DJO

[Amazingant]

yea

and when did we decide that we wanted to be hit with heat beams just because we formed a crowd? oh no! we've got too many people in one spot! lets use a less powerful version of a microwave and make people feel like they're a piece of leftover pizza. I may be kinda stupid, but don't microwave ovens turn off when you open the door because the microwaves are, oh idk.. dangerous??? painfull??? duh???

[newcreation]

microwaves

guess bullets are more humane?,any other options

[William Squire]

silly

You "decided" to be hit when you protested illegally, broke the law, and ignored the military or police orders to peacefully go home and shut up.

Beam weapons are not your choice as the victim, they are the choice of the attacker. And they are a good choice for a number of reasons. You won't ever have a world without weapons... and when you need one, you want to have the best.

It is not the job of a microwave to subdue or eliminate threats. Thus, the microwave is designed to be safe.

[kolomari]

These are not microwaves

Microwave radiation is one type of radiation, like light but at a lower frequency. The radiation they're talking about here is millimeter wave radiation. Saying that it is like microwave radiation is like saying the light that you can see from the sun is like microwave radiation. They've also done a TON of testing with this to make sure it's (relatively) safe to use on people, so there's a lot less to worry about than you think.

Also - this is not just a tool they're going to turn loose on crowds of people. This would be something you turn loose when you're sitting in a humvee or tank somewhere with people chanting death threats and throwing rocks at you.

[William Squire]

Interesting Read

The airborne laser is something that I am proud to say my country is putting together. These technological defense capabilities represent another "First" for the free world.

"Beam" type energy weapons have been on the radar for a long time. There are various reasons why they aren't being used to the same extent as traditional firearms, but once their capabilities can honestly exceed those of traditional means, then the change will only take a matter of time.

I wrote about beam weapons last year:
http://www.inaniloquent.com/PermaLink.aspx?guid=8b31029f-76d0-4b26-b276-945efb836da8

[deadcrowisland]

This is just the begining

There are other big weapons coming that use similar technologies. And on top of that, there is also the normal miniaturization of any technology, so that they will end up mounted on assault vehicles and eventually in your hand!
If they don't have it already ;)

[deadcrowisland]

This is just the begining

There are other big weapons coming that use similar technologies. And on top of that, there is also the normal miniaturization of any technology, so that they will end up mounted on assault vehicles and eventually in your hand!
If they don't have it already ;)

[heystoopid]

Er, one small problem or two or three or more

Oh well, a number of numerous problems to iron out, before these play toys are allowed to go out in the field.

Further, all the laws of physics, energy, thermal dynamics and inverse projection laws are fixed in this man's universe.

Interesting read, but still in the realms if science fiction!, such is life!

[heystoopid]

Er, one small problem or two or three or more

Oh well, a number of numerous problems to iron out, before these play toys are allowed to go out in the field.

Further, all the laws of physics, energy, thermal dynamics and inverse projection laws are fixed in this man's universe.

Interesting read, but still in the realms if science fiction!, such is life!

[DaClyde]

Didn't Val Kilmer already invent this?

All those years ago, I didn't realize "Real Genius" was actually a documentary on the development of the COIL system.

The real test....can it pop a house's worth of popcorn?

The line about "Airborne Laser" already having flown without the actual laser is a crock, Why even mention that? No one cares that a 747 was capable of flight. That's like decades ago when there was supposed to be an experiment to test the feasibility of a nuclear powered aircraft. All they ended up doing was loading a small reactor (not hooked up to anything or providing any power) into a plane and flying around. Whoopee.

[Lolo Gecko]

Holy Bat Lasers ...

phasers on stun please :)

[halfnote]

"Airborne Laser Weapon"

Would a mirror deflect the laser beam?

[staticfive]

Mirrors

It depends on the wavelength. A YAG laser (1064nm, 532nm, or 355nm) can be reflected by a regular glass mirror, whereas a CO2 laser (~10500nm) will not permeate glass but will reflect off of a highly polished metal surface. The heat becomes a problem; if you don't have a way to remove the absorbed energy, it will blast the mirror anyway! The COIL lasers that they're using are around 1.315 µm (1315nm), so it could probably have a significant amount of its energy reflected with some pretty standard materials! It seems that the power level, however, is high enough to where you could toast the reflective layer pretty quickly, then burn through the rest of the materials below the surface with little trouble.

[halfnote]

Are laser weapons ready for duty?

Would a mirror deflect the laser beam?

[Bob Brinkman]

I would think

I high powerd laser would burn right through it, though it sounds reasonable that some of the energy would get defelcted. Where are all the physicists when we need them?

[staticfive]

Mirror reflections

It depends on the wavelength. A YAG laser (1064nm, 532nm, or 355nm) can be reflected by a regular glass mirror, whereas a CO2 laser (~10500nm) will not permeate glass but will reflect off of a highly polished metal surface. The heat becomes a problem; if you don't have a way to remove the absorbed energy, it will blast the mirror anyway! The COIL lasers that they're using are around 1.315 µm (1315nm), so it could probably have a significant amount of its energy reflected with some pretty standard materials! It seems that the power level, however, is high enough to where you could toast the reflective layer pretty quickly, then burn through the rest of the materials below the surface with little trouble.

[staticfive]

Mirror reflections

It depends on the wavelength. A YAG laser (1064nm, 532nm, or 355nm) can be reflected by a regular glass mirror, whereas a CO2 laser (~10500nm) will not permeate glass but will reflect off of a highly polished metal surface. The heat becomes a problem; if you don't have a way to remove the absorbed energy, it will blast the mirror anyway! The COIL lasers that they're using are around 1.315 µm (1315nm), so it could probably have a significant amount of its energy reflected with some pretty standard materials! It seems that the power level, however, is high enough to where you could toast the reflective layer pretty quickly, then burn through the rest of the materials below the surface with little trouble.

[gooders1]

?????????

Speaking as an Englishman have you lot gone totally bonkers? I mean to say,LASER WEAPONS??? What's next,photon torpedoes?

[leccleston]

Atmosheric effects on high power laser beams

From my past experiences with high powered lasers it is my understanding that the Lamb effect makes it very difficult to transmit extremely high power densities.

We found back in the 60's that transmitting high powered laser pulses over 100 megawatts in peak power and in excess of 50 joules would result in breaking down the air. The leading edge would heat the air changing the index of refraction for the following energy and the pulse would actually shorten in length with the tail trying to catch up with the leading edge.

The energy density would get so high that the air would break down and absorb the rest of the pulse.

The answer of course was to increase the beam diameter but I still wonder what effect this laser will experience in the atmosphere.

I realize that there are atmospheric windows in the IR and that the density is much lower at high altitude but it still sounds like a challenge.

Larry Eccleston

[RobX1]

They used to test microwaves on dogs in Russia in the early 60's.
I suppose now testing on humans is assumed to be safe because its a safer means of crowd control

The amount of pain they can inflict by burning the upper part through microwave or heat energy of the skin they produced these vehicles over seas on our enemies for control now they are safe enough to be used on everyone. Safe depends I guess on whether one is victim or the person using the microwave on the crowd

So lets say some portions of the bodies like intestine and interior brain regions just spat out when the military used it on who ever considered was hostile.It cannot be a mass weapon of destruction because only our enemies possess those.
Besides whats a little free tan for crowd control now a days. Off course one could argue not everyone has the same level of resistance like a child versus teenager compared to an adult or elder since not everyone has a different level of sensitivity so what could be considered lethal for one person may not be for another. Crowd control or testing Guinea pigs is my question under the security banner.