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Laser Weapon Shoots Down Airplanes In Test
airshowfan writes "Boeing's directed-energy weapons (a.k.a. frickin' laser beams) have been getting some attention lately. The Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) is a C-130 that famously burned a hole through a car's hood, and the YAL-1 AirBorne Laser is a 747 that shoots a laser from its nose that is powerful enough to bring down an ICBM. But even cooler is the Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments (MATRIX), a laser that is mounted on a truck (which probably costs less than a 747, but who knows) and that can shoot down small aircraft, as shown in the picture on this article. (The Laser Avenger supposedly also has this capability). We live in the future!"
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Thankfully, RWR & Edward Teller get the last laugh after all.
Or at least until the Obama administration cancels the program and sells the blueprints to the Chicoms.
In the old days, the prophets who pointed out the wickedness of their nation were burned. How impotent the mob of mediocre mendacious malcontented mundanes has become!
When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
Assuming they make the missile 90% reflective so only 10% of the power burns a hole, where does the remaining 90% reflect to?
I'd love to see some citations. Sorry if I mix your posts while quoting:
That won't work. The problem starts at step 2. If the top layer isn't reflective, then as it "boils away" it will convert incoming energy from the laser into heat efficiently enough to destroy any reflective layer that might be under it.
I'd wait to see how the outer layer boils away before affirming that it will generate enough heat to destroy any reflective layer underneath. See fire-retardant materials for an example of how materials can resist heat. There shouldn't take much scientific effort to come up with a paint that goes somewhat the other way with laser: burns fast and effectively, quickly exposing the reflective layer which itself is heat resistant.
An expensive mirror that's new, clean, and in perfect condition would still absorb 5% of the energy hitting it in lab conditions. In the air, in combat conditions, coated with goo from the stealth paint that just got burned off of it, the reflective layer wouldn't last even a measurable fraction of a second.
A laser weapon designed to fry a plane that absorbs 70% or more of it should be less than effective if the said plane absorbs only 5%. Once we agree on that, we can then go on discussing your claim that the goo from the paint would have that much impact, which goes back to the first part of my reply.
Optical vs. radio is just a choice of wavelengths. Whatever wavelength you pick to be shiny, can be used to detect you. Whatever wavelength you choose to be "not shiny", can be used to destroy you.
That's when a double approach comes to the rescue. Be "not shiny" to avoid detection, then get rid of the "not shiny" layer once detected so your "shininess" protects you from being destroyed.
no material of any sort can be kept sufficiently reflective under combat conditions that the laser wouldn't destroy it.
That sounds like a mighty assumption without citation.
Say, you wouldn't happen to work for Boeing, would you? : )
http://dilbert.com/2010-12-13
Are you talking about Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan? Because we both know you aren't talking about Iraq.
It should be obvious to anyone who cares to evaluate geopolitics deeper than "Bush lied, people died!" that I wasn't talking about Iraq. Personally I'm getting rather sick of the whining about Iraq. You do realize that we are in the process of withdrawing from that country, for better or worse, right?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
The hungry are by and large hungry specifically because their cultures, societies, beliefs, and religions are degenerate.
Otherwise, their only interest would be in forming secular modern states that deserve to survive. All I see are ululating mobs of vermin whose shit cultures I am told to respect because it is Politically Correct.
I wouldn't feed the hungry of the world if I could do it with a wave of the hand.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."