[url]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/02/17/wbush217.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/02/17/ixworld.html[/url]

Yeah it's a british paper..still interesting though.

Does anyone remember that SUV the army came out with a couple months ago that had a fake laser up on top of it?  Doesn't seem so far fetched now does it.

Interesting article.

I would think deployment in two years is optimistic but maybe not.

Someone's smoking something. Current airborne lasers are huge and heavy (they fill a 747). They also have a tough time with thin-skinned highly-flammable targets (missiles). The 747 would run out of fuel before the laser could put enough energy on a tank or building to destroy it.
[URL]http://www.airbornelaser.com/[/URL]

Hmmm, I don't know about that, my father works on an electron beam wielder out at TAFB and that thing will punch through 2"+ of solid steal in an instantaneous burst.  It is also so precise that it will punch through the same hole 10,000 times and be off by as little as a .001" ;  They have shot missiles out of the air with CO2 lasers before, 3-4MW range I think. They aparently know have shrunk something of the same order of magnitude and put it on a 747 Airframe.  It will happen. It always does.

Benjamin

The energy conversion efficiency on lasers is still abysmal. I worked with pulsed lasers in the late sixties and to put out a 100 KW equiv. pulse required 10 MW equiv. and that was just for 1 microsecond....wow, 1% payload. Even if they are up to 5% (and continuous) these days, that's still a lot of energy wasted, that has to come from someplace. Lasers are around with that kind of efficiency only because they can do a job uniquely. Lasers behave just like any other kind of light in that they can be deflected by a shiny (at their wavelength) surface. Watch out for the tactical side of aluminum foil!!!! You thought it was just for making caps out of!!!

Generators are possible, but a gas powered generator would be bigger than the SUV in order to put out enough energy to be tactical. Chemical sources are very tough on their surroundings....they fire once and contaminate/melt everything around them. Energy storage banks have improved, but are still large and require charging between uses. I don't think anything soon will displace an artillery round or missle as an efficient, portable means of making large, deep holes in things.

"Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser" - COIL.
Any one have anything on this specific laser ??
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I read the article by our reporter, Mr. Sean Raymont, one more time and seems as if he may be practicing journalism on us.

Mr. Raymont says the successor to the AC-130 may be in the field within two years but doesn't exactly say the "COIL" will be on board at that time.

Mr. Raymont does go on to mention the 21st Century which would seem to give him ample room to be correct - or not to care !
[:D]

I'm not so sure how wrong the latter part of this century may be for shields and phasers.

(Rodenberry and a guy named Jules something or other both did pretty good.)

The use of lasers as battlefiedl weapons dates back to at least 1991 which is eons ago by today's standards of technological advancements. The text below was taken from an article entitled "Laser Cannon Test: Two Rockets Down" By Frank Sietzen


The theater laser system is designed to intercept and destroy short-range, limited rocket attacks fired at civilians and troops in the field. It is not capable of intercepting missiles high in the atmosphere as is the case with the National Missile Defense System under debate by the Clinton administration and Congress.

TRW's laser is a virtually invisible, infrared beam generated from deuterium and fluoride. In the test simulating the missile attack, the two rockets are fired aloft in rapid succession. The laser-system tracking radars detect the missile's oncoming flight and fires two separate laser beams at each target, one after the other. The beams strike the missile's warhead and, in effect, detonate its explosive well before the missile reaches the ground.

"Killing one rocket was significant, but being able to show that we can consistently kill two or more targets per engagement is in a class by itself," said Lt. General John Costello, commanding general U.S. Space and Missile Defense Command. The tests were conducted at the Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The U.S. and Israeli governments have been developing laser battlefield weapons -- known as "Directed Energy Weapons" in engineering terminology -- since the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The requirements for the lasers are driven by the need of the Israeli government to protect civilians living in towns along its northern border from future rocket and missile attacks.

This is the Tactical High-Energy Laser (THEL)program developed initially to protect Israel.  I read earlier this year that within the next two years they will have a portable, truck mounted laser that will do the same job.  It is a chemical laser based system.

Hey DnPRK, check out the Jane's article linked below.



Laser success for USAF

  - 24th JUNE 1998

The US Air Force (USAF) has conducted the first successful test of the high-energy laser module for its YAL-1A Airborne Laser programme. The system is designed to shoot down theatre ballistic missiles from the nose of a Boeing 747-400F.

[url]http://www.janes.com/defence/air_forces/news_briefs/jdw980624_07.shtml[/url]