Slashdot Mirror
US Navy Breaks Laser Record
ectotherm writes "The US Navy has broken the existing record for the power of a laser. Their new free-electron laser can burn through 20 feet of steel per second. 'Next up for the tech: additional weaponization. The Navy just awarded Boeing a contract worth up to $163 million to take that technology and package it as a 100 kW weapons system, one that the Navy hopes to use not only to destroy things but for on-ship communications, tracking and detection, too — using a fraction of the energy such applications use now, plus with more accuracy.' Now all we need to do is upgrade the sharks..."
... we really just need a small group to protect the environment and or a army that create Harmony between nations.
Sure, I'll vote for that as long as it's my army!
Eclectic beats from Leeds, UK
handmadehands.co.uk
Who needs to burn through 20 feet of steel? Or even 2 feet of steel?
What's even more crazy is that their ultimate goal is to reach a megawatt of power and burn through *2000* feet of steel per second. I'd imagine seeing a phalanx of tanks, and with one 3 second FWOOOONG! from the laser, our military crosscuts through them all in one sweep. Here's the Wired article I'm referring to: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/unexpectedly-navys-superlaser-blasts-away-a-record
The article said it can burn thru 20 feet of steel per second, not 200 per the slashdot version.
Even the 20 feet is likely misleading since I doubt it can sustain that power output for more than a fraction of a second, and anyways if you really were borign thru multiple feet of steel then all your vaporized steel in the borehole you were creating would get in the way of the laser.
Still very impressive though. I'd love to see the face of the first crackpot dictator whose ICBMs are shot down by one of these.
what diameter is the beam? volume/sec more important IMO
This 500kV test was of just the accelerator (i.e. the bit the produces the electron beam part of a Free Electron Beam laser), not the FEL itself. It's this electron beam that is purported to do the extraordinary steel-cutting, not the laser beam. There is no mention of whether this was a momentary or sustained electron beam output. A 500kV accelerator on it's own isn't all that impressive, but once they package it into a small volume (room rather than building), and actually use it to lase, then that will be very impressive indeed.
Who needs to burn through 20 feet of steel? Or even 2 feet of steel?
Well, not so much 20 feet of steel directly, but there's a lot to be said for a weapon that could punch through 1-2 feet of layered tank armour, or melt a substantial hole in a warship. While many warships are not heavily armored nowadays, there are still exceptions.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
Naval artillery and missiles can shoot over the horizon. Lasers have to be in line of sight.
Wrong science. This is physics, not biology. Unless you are talking about ill-tempered robotic sharks with frickin' laser beams...
"Hey, I know what we're gonna do today." -- Phineas Flynn
Everybody's complaining about the weaponization of this, and I agree they don't need any more toys, but I think this is a good thing because it's a great step towards laser launching systems and away from chemical rockets.
The military may have done it but it also could be adapted to commercial usages.
Heck one thing I can think of is dismantling large ships in boneyards. This would be good for any sort of metal recycling in fact.
"Bah!" - Dogbert
Over 20 comments before someone mentions Real Genius? This was like the plot of the movie itself.
yea right.
What planet do you live on? But the humans of earth are a jealous lot, full of hate and mistrust, and belief that their way is the only way to live, and that all other ways must be eliminated.
Before you go spouting off stupid again why don't you take a look at the shear number of fanatics in the world(christian, muslim, jewish, whale watcher, environmentalist, whatever) and decide if your small army will work againist people who don't believe in reason and are willing to fight to the death for their illogic.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
What's that expressed as houses of popcorn?
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
Who needs to burn through 20 feet of steel? Or even 2 feet of steel?
Remember that laser illuminance falls off quite rapidly with distance, especially in humid or dusty conditions. Having the power to burn through 20 feet of steel in perfect conditions at a relatively close range means you'll probably be able to still knock down that missile that's miles away in bad conditions.
There's also the factor of being able to keep the laser in one spot long enough to do damage. 1 second is a very long time to keep a beam in one spot so you need enough power that even a fraction of a second can do considerable damage.
Sapere aude!
I didn't see any data about blooming or effective range. Any ideas? Is there a physicist in the house?
There some more information to be found here: http://www.jlab.org/FEL/ You could also watch the video http://www.jlab.org/FEL/Movie28.mov , but that was a bit disappointing (no KABOOM).
Well, you may drive at 60 miles/hour and not mean to drive for 60 miles. In this case, it could cut through 1/2" steel plating in 1/2 inch / (20 ft/second) = 2 milliseconds. Does that make sense?
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
Wow, that was one of the worst articles I've ever read.
So to "create power" requires energy. Uh, ok... I'm with you, sort of.
OK, so they "injected" 500kV of "juice." Fuck you, fox news.
So wait, the power output of this thing is actually 14kW, and the goal of the program is to reach 1MW. But apparently they were at 10kW four years ago... so what's this article actually about? The fact that they increased the voltage to 500kV from the previous 320kV? Why does that matter?
Oh ok, I guess the big development here is that they're using superconductors... or something. It's tough to tell, because "super-conducting electron power" is a series of words that, when strung together, don't mean a fucking thing.
Clearly.
There is already no place on Earth that couldn't be completely destroyed by a determined military attack in a matter of hours. What's your point?
I am officially gone from
You realize that the majority of technological advances through human history have been from war technology? There are innumerable applications for lasers like this, more peaceful ones than not. Furthermore, why should the US car what anyone else thinks? Humans come from tribes and tribes fight eachother for resources. Nations are like big tribes. The Chinese are pulling an economic war with the rest of the world, and also spying on everyone. Why shouldn't the US be able to show the Chinese we still have some abilities they don't have and they can't just do whatever they want to us. If we were defenseless you would see quite a few nations trying to step all over us, and probably all over Canada as well.
That brings me to an interesting point, / . is just "the ramblings of socially-inept, technology-literate news-mongers".
20 feet of solid steel at a 1 micron hole? 20 linear feet of sheet steel at 1 micron thick? What are the exact specs?
"Yes, I have a Disaster Recovery Plan. It's called my Resume"
the humans of earth are a jealous lot, full of hate and mistrust, and belief that their way is the only way to live, and that all other ways must be eliminated
Suddenly the foreign policy and economically destructive wars perpetuated by the United States make sense.
Uh ... what? Do you really believe that the United States is hell-bent on eliminating other ways of life? Do you really believe that (because if so, that's just bizarre) or are you just America-bashing for fun? I'd say the Soviets did a hell of a lot more in that regard than the United States ever did. Many of our previous conflicts were ostensibly driven by ideological differences (although, if you dig a little deeper you'll usually find that there was more to it than that) but since the Cold War is over we're far more focused on the economic benefit of our overseas campaigns. Which isn't necessarily better, but it still has nothing to do with converting everyone to our brand of representative republicanism. We don't really care how you want to live: just buy our stuff and sell us your oil. Oh, and listen to our music and buy a lot of our DVDs.
but the truth is that the United States is not paying for a defensive military.
Why would you ever have thought that? More to the point, what do you mean by "defensive"? Not all conflicts have to be fought on one's own territory to be considered "defensive", and sometimes investments have to be made because of obligations to allied nations. Hell, World War II, if you have the ability to grasp the big picture, was in fact a defensive war. The reality is, though, that we've cut back substantially on our military capability since the end of the Cold War. Why? Because (so it was believed at the highest levels of our government) the world is now safe because the Soviet Empire collapsed, and we don't need all these men and machines. So this idea that America is continuing to build this ever more massive military is just wrong. Period. Furthermore, the current Iraq conflict is stretching our ability to deploy personnel: we just don't have the manpower or equipment that we used to have, even going back to the first Gulf war.
Whether or not we made the correct choice in downsizing our military machine remains to be seen. But it is most definitely not what it once was.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
If lasers ever become a serious threat against naval vessels, you could attach mirrors to divert the beams.
Can you? No mirror is perfect, there is always some absorption, and given a beam powerful enough the leakage is going to melt the mirror. Nor do optical mirrors reflect all wavelengths equally: if your laser is tunable you can give the enemy a lot of grief by fiddling with the frequency.
There's also the issue of specular reflections: the slightest touch of a beam that powerful is going to permanently blind anyone in the vicinity, friend or foe. The collateral damage from a high-powered laser used on the battlefield is likely to be spectacular.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Yes, keep insulting Americans, on an American server running American software, on an American-created internet, with an American-created computer, while telling us all how negatively America affects your day-to-day life. Though ironically, I'd say your nationality is actually most likely to be... American. And that's all kinds of psychological issues right there... more daddy issues than a season of "Lost".
America will not. The problem is that CHina is obviously gearing up for a war with the west.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
"Who needs to burn through 20 feet of steel? Or even 2 feet of steel?"
Can you say "industrial metal cutting"? Some metal is laser-cut today, but being able to easily cut large thick steel sections would save even more time/work/money.
http://www.americanmachinist.com/304/Issue/Article/False/86876/Issue
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Name another country that hasn't been as belligerent and warmongering as they were able to be.
Yeah, it would be fantastic if the U.S. went all peacenik, but realistically, any country, any people, with their economy and relative safety would (and have, in the past) build up their military and throw their weight around. It's asking a little much for Americans to take an enlightened that everyone else has failed at taking, and crapping on them for not doing it is pretty simpleminded.
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.