Posted by
michael
on from the also-useful-for-making-popcorn dept.
KeyShark writes: "An article on FoxNews describes how front-line troops soon will be protected by battlefield lasers designed to shoot down rockets, artillery shells and even mortars."
The U.S. also has an anti-satellite laser weapon that has been tested and confirmed to work by overloading the circuits
This sounds bogus.
1) These lasers are huge. They are talking about systems that are deployed on tractor trailers or on modified 747s. Why would you launch this into space?
2) These lasers use up their chemical lasing medium with each shot. Why would you launch a space-based system that you have to reload?
3) A big problem with these systems is scattering by the atmosphere and they require advanced adaptive optics to counteract turbulence. They're having enough trouble getting this to work with ground and air based systems... why would they go with a space based system when you then have to contend with going through several layers of the atmosphere as well as really high orbital velocities.
4) You would need a constellation of many, many satellites to always be overhead a given conflict zone.. unless you put these things way up in geosynchronous orbit which sounds pretty crazy to me.
Space-based lasers might be useful to interdict ICBMS (and even that is dubious)... you certainly don't want a space based system to interdict theater ballistic missiles.
-- There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
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The U.S. also has an anti-satellite laser weapon that has been tested and confirmed to work by overloading the circuits
This sounds bogus.
1) These lasers are huge. They are talking about systems that are deployed on tractor trailers or on modified 747s. Why would you launch this into space?
2) These lasers use up their chemical lasing medium with each shot. Why would you launch a space-based system that you have to reload?
3) A big problem with these systems is scattering by the atmosphere and they require advanced adaptive optics to counteract turbulence. They're having enough trouble getting this to work with ground and air based systems... why would they go with a space based system when you then have to contend with going through several layers of the atmosphere as well as really high orbital velocities.
4) You would need a constellation of many, many satellites to always be overhead a given conflict zone.. unless you put these things way up in geosynchronous orbit which sounds pretty crazy to me.
Space-based lasers might be useful to interdict ICBMS (and even that is dubious)... you certainly don't want a space based system to interdict theater ballistic missiles.
There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.