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Dawn of the Airborne Laser

Posted by michael on from the nothing-faster-than-a-laser dept.

Yonzie writes "As you may have heard, there are a number of competing franchises working on a functional laser weapon. Popular Science has an interesting story about `The Wall of Fire', an airborne laser designed to fit in the belly of a 747. Apparently, this is powerful and precise enough to destroy enemy intercontinental and intermediate-range missiles in mid-flight. I can imagine the use of laser turrets as protection against missiles, but I really can't see the use of a laser mounted in a 747. IMHO, it's way too slow compared to the missiles, and will not be able to scramble fast enough." This is the big daddy of the JSF laser that we've mentioned before.

6 of 493 comments (clear)

  1. Size.. by _ph1ux_ · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I know that the thing is currently a big ass laser - but eventually we will be able to get something like this down to a reasonable size - where it can hopefully be built into attack aircraft - which at that point will allow a plane to fly with confidence in enemy territory.

    The other aspect that makes this an interesting weapon to have on a 747 - let the 747 fly into enemy territory with an escort fighter squadron - the fighters protect the 747 - which protects the fighters and maybe bombers from enemy missles.

    This would be a great thing to have in Command and Conquer: generals...

    Although I wonder about the speed it can defend itself - what happens if you shoot ten missles at it?

  2. yeah, but you got to hit the missles early by EccentricAnomaly · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I saw a presentation when I was in grad school on the previous incarnation of the 747-laser. The big problem was the laser could only blow up the missle if its tanks were mostly full of fuel.

    This is because missle fuel tanks are under high pressure so that the fuel can help form part of the structure for the missle to support the weight of the fuel. If a laser can weaken the walls of the fuel tank then the missle's structure will fail, and the missle will break up.

    Anyway these lasers have to hit a missle right after it launches or else the tanks have lost too much pressure and the laser won't do any damage... the presenter defended this by saying you want to shoot down a missle close to launch anyway because you don't want the debris from the missle falling on any friendlies... and this is a good argument (the scuds shot down by patriots in gulf war I caused a lot of damage when they fell out of the sky).

    I do have to wonder, though, if the missle launches can be detected and the missle targeted quickly enough for these lasers to work... and what about missles with solid rocket motors? I doubt the laser would be any good against these at all.

    --
    There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
    1. Re:yeah, but you got to hit the missles early by ScottKin · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Heat *is* heat - and when you apply the ammount of heat generated by the ABL System to a Solid fuel, it's going to create quite a big "boom".

      Most model rockets today are powered by solid-fuel engines, and if you expose them to heat they'll do wonderfully-interesting things.

      ScottKin

      --
      I don't give a rat's behind about "karma" here or anywhere else. Don't like what I have to say here? Deal with it!
    2. Re:yeah, but you got to hit the missles early by ggwood · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Likely you would want to strike the missle early to minimize the spread of whatever nasty stuff it is carrying. I heard reports that shooting the SCUD's down over Israel caused more damage than the SCUDS's would have caused if they struck ground. I'm unsure of the validity of this argument. However if we expand our view to nuclear weapons, *any* detonation would be horrible. Better, perhaps, to keep it nearby whatever country launched it. Or with some planning to spread it out over some uninhabited locale.

      --
      a war on terrorism? How can we end a war on a method?
  3. Re:Star wars! by MightyTribble · · Score: 4, Interesting
    My only hope is that the laser will be powerful enough to go through dense fog and also not be affected by rain/moisture as well.

    It will fly above the clouds. No fog or rain at 40,000 feet. It will also target missiles that have cleared the cloudbank, while they are still on ascent.

  4. Scramble? Who said anything about scrambling? by aminorex · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It seems obvious to me that the 747s would just be
    kept flying in a coverage zone. They are there for
    altitude, not intercept. Since you can't use a
    space-based laser by treaty, it's the best, cheapest
    way to get wide coverage.

    As regards speed, the laser travels at c, which
    is plenty fast.

    --
    -I like my women like I like my tea: green-