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Boeing Demonstrates Drone-Killing Laser
An anonymous reader writes: Boeing has successfully tested a new weapon system that tracks unmanned aircraft and shoots them down with a laser. The system is surprisingly small — it can be transported in a few medium-sized boxes, and two techs can set it up in minutes. The laser needs just a few seconds of continuous [contact] to set a drone aflame, and the tracking gimbal is precise enough to target specific parts of a drone. "Want to zap the tail so it crashes and then you can go retrieve the mostly intact drone and see who is trying to spy on you? Can do. Think it's carrying explosives and you want to completely destroy it? No problem." The laser is controlled with custom targeting software that runs on a laptop, with help from an Xbox 360 controller. Boeing expects the laser system to be ready for sale in the next year or two.
The mirror coating is barely reflective to a laser, and will burn off just about as quickly as the camouflage coating which you propose. What is needed to have any real effect is an ablative laser coating which continues to be reflective as it is burned away. AFAIK no such material exists as of yet, in spite of being prophesied in roll-playing games (i.e. Battletech.)
However, yes, there will be some reflections while the target is being cooked, and if it is at low altitudes that could be quite dangerous to any spectators.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
People keep bringing up "reflective" surfaces into laser weapon discussions. Think more "energy" than "light". Surfaces: aren't as reflective as you think; particularly at the wavelengths used; and the amount of energy being dumped is enough to change the properties of the surface from the state it was a microsecond before.