Skyguard Laser

[Susano]

And we all thought the air-defense powerguns in Hammer's Slammers were far-fetched....

http://www.neatorama.com/2007/01/23/skyguard-laser/

[Sundog]

And we all thought the air-defense powerguns in Hammer's Slammers were far-fetched....

http://www.neatorama.com/2007/01/23/skyguard-laser/

Actually, all I ever thought was that the Powergun system was far-fetched. Calliopes, as a concept, make perfect sense - and once perfected, could very well spell the end of the concept of "Air Superiority" permanently.

[BobGreenwade]

This is very cool. :D

[L. Marcus]

So . . .

Stats? :)

[Curufea]

Missile deflection, megascale, extra time: full turn.

[Inu]

Hm. I remember reading glowing reports about this kind of stuff, but later finding out that they were massively overstated. Things like the artillery trajectories being pre-programmed into the laser, and a 'kill' counted if it merely tagged it. But then, I've been wrong about more than one thing lately, and this might be something new... or at least unheard of before, since it mentions tests in 2004 (about the timeframe for what I remember of the artillery tests).

Is there anyone who knows more out there?

[tkdguy]

I need to link this thread to my Future Tech thread. And I owe you rep.

[Wyrm Ouroboros]

I got the sense from the video that the thing used radar to track the projectile, and sat on the target long enough to cause the warhead/shell to detonate -- basically forcing it to detonate prematurely.

On the Hammer's Slammers front, though, tribarrels = miniguns, calliopes = self-reloading Metalstorm ... ;)

[1EyedJack]

Way Cool- was it real ?

[Jaxom]

The tracking should be feasible. The pointing I'm not so sure about... In theory, the military has done things like that before but I've never seen it available commercially.

The laser would have to be something nasty... They're talking about helium and simple acids as waste products which is not ringing any bells but if you are looking for something that is not affected by clouds that would mean some specific spectral limitations. It's clearly not IR, Visible or traditional Microwave (all of which would interact nicely with water vapor in a cloud).

[Old Man]

Water vapor is one thing, actual rain is another. I don't see how this thing could ever work in conditions of rain or dust.

[Susano]

Water vapor is one thing, actual rain is another. I don't see how this thing could ever work in conditions of rain or dust.

Sure it will! Industrial Light and Magic has put a lot of work into this baby!

[Old Man]

If that's the case I wish they'd shift more of their R&D budget to lightsaber research.

[gewing]

Water vapor is one thing, actual rain is another. I don't see how this thing could ever work in conditions of rain or dust.



I suspect it would still "work" at drastically reduced ranges and with what amounts to a flash attack against everyone in the area. :nonp:


It still needs more development, but...

IIRC There was a project to demonstrate a 25kw solid state laser in the lab last year, and aiming for a 100kw this year. I think I saw something indicating that they actually achieved around 45kw already.

A solid state laser will mean they don't have to mess with the volatile or caustic chemicals, and it should be able to be dramatically smaller. There was a product announcement in Aviation week some months ago that iirc was a 1 megawatt generator that was something like 4' by 3', maybe 6' by 3', and weighed 400-600 lbs. combining that, and a good enough cooling system to keep the solid state lasers working...

Ranges will be "relatively" short, supposedly about 10miles under good conditions. Even so, once they are fielded, I would HATE to be a pilot in the area. Enemy in particular, but the possibility of so called friendly fire under those circumstanses...

Combining that with the gun based systems like the modified Phalanx we have fielded in the Green Zone and the 35mm Millenium gun that is being developed/tested for the same role, and there is a significant potential to protect at least fixed locations.

IIRC the Israelis are also working on a missile based defense against the medium artillery rockets. I am not certain how useful that would be, unless they are talking about the 100km+ range rockets. I would think it would be damned hard to make a missile cheap, small, and fast enough to do much good against threats with ranges less than 40-50 km at a minimum.

I suppose they could make something like a fairly small, fast missile with a pre-fragmented or cargo dispersal round like the Oerlikon AHEAD projectiles, for a longer range point defense capability. I can't see an "area defense" capability unless the targets are in the air longer than a BM21, for instance.

[Beast]

I wonder how much weight and how much bigger a rocket would need to be if it had a shuttle tile like system on it to counter the laser

cost of it won't be cheap
and hopefully too much tech needed than a simple machine shop

[Hyper-Man]

I wonder how much weight and how much bigger a rocket would need to be if it had a shuttle tile like system on it to counter the laser

cost of it won't be cheap
and hopefully too much tech needed than a simple machine shop

It would just require a 'mirror' surface that is efficient at reflecting radiation in the infrared portion of the spectrum. Probably still expensive though.

[Jaxom]

It would just require a 'mirror' surface that is efficient at reflecting radiation in the infrared portion of the spectrum. Probably still expensive though.

I dunno if IR is the right range of the spectrum here... I went looking for anything that would give it away and without doing an emission spectrum of the things that they listed as gaseous wastes, I couldn't get a good idea what wavelength they might be lasing.

The important thing to know is that clouds are *really* good at reflecting IR across almost the whole range defined as IR as I recall (ask Cancer for the definitive, he and I were in the same Astronomy department)... The claim that this would work through a cloud means you've got to be picking something that has low absorption and scattering with water vapor at the least. That'd be an argument against IR.

There was an interesting article which, among other things, compared cost-per-shot on various defenses that claimed firing this sucker was about $1k per shot compared to $100k per Patriot or other anti-missile missile. I dunno if those numbers are right at all, but it was an interesting claim and for all the flaws I can see with a laser system (Old Man hit the nail on the head... A good desert dust-storm knocks this on its ass right fast) it makes a very compelling argument. (The author was certainly not unbiased as he had headed the Israeli version of laser defense research, but it was still interesting...)

[Old Man]

Cost-per-shot is not even the most compellling argument for this system; AA performance is. With shot travel time at zero and a good tracking system, this thing can bring down any aircraft, UAV, missile, or shell that it can track. It's just a question of effective range. This technology obsoletes the A-10 and any other non-stealthy, low- to mid-altitude aircraft.

[gewing]

Cost-per-shot is not even the most compellling argument for this system; AA performance is. With shot travel time at zero and a good tracking system, this thing can bring down any aircraft, UAV, missile, or shell that it can track. It's just a question of effective range. This technology obsoletes the A-10 and any other non-stealthy, low- to mid-altitude aircraft.



That has been my argument for years. Even if the plane itself can survive due to manuevers, etc, the pilot...

then there is the large amount of fuel onboard

then there are the external weapons


EDIT!

they have now reached 67 kw for a solid state laser


:ugly:

[egaroadkill]

EDIT!

they have now reached 67 kw for a solid state laser


:ugly:
I just recently read further from another source on this that engineers also quote that 100Kw with a solid state laser are now technically in reach quite soon.

[1EyedJack]

Not too long and we'll have Ray Guns wait we already do I must be living in the future, all we need now is those darn fly'n cars

[Susano]

Not too long and we'll have Ray Guns wait we already do I must be living in the future, all we need now is those darn fly'n cars

http://www.moller.com/

[Old Man]

Not too long and we'll have Ray Guns wait we already do I must be living in the future, all we need now is those darn fly'n cars

...which can then be shot down with the ray guns.