[extropy-chat] LASER: DARPA's HELLADS small laser weapon makes headway

Mike Lorrey mlorrey at yahoo.com
Fri Sep 2 14:10:24 UTC 2005



--- Dirk Bruere <dirk.bruere at gmail.com> wrote:> 
> Well, the 100kW aint it.
> I've worked on lasers putting out 1kW onto 10 mm square carbon fibre
> mat and it does zilch. Dry hardwood is almost as good.
> Now work out the power density of the 100kW laser compared to beam
> size on target.

100 kW is qualitatively different from 1 kW just as a microwave oven is
different from a radar gun.

> 
> There are numerous ways to absorb, deflect or reradiate that kind of
> power for the few seconds necessary for the munition to reach its
> target. Bear in mind that these systems are used in the terminal
> phase of attack. The laser will work with PGMs, but not with dumb
> katyushas that have been hardened.

Any dumb ballistic weapon that you force to be modified with graphite
sheets, glue, sawdust, etc will, even if they prevent laser pulse
attack, so fundamentally change the ballistic characteristics of the
warhead as to make it unusable unless the modifications are done by the
manufacturer and he publishes ballistic tables for the new design.

Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
Founder, Constitution Park Foundation:
http://constitutionpark.blogspot.com
Personal/political blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com

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