Navy unveils powerful ship-mounted laser weapon

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/201...ip-mounted-laser-weapon?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=1


"claimed that the LaWS (Laser Weapons System)" Judge Dredd jokes abound " can shoot down a small drone for about $1 worth of electricity and, once the laser is operational, it should be able to replace a Gatling gun, whose rounds can cost several thousand dollars each."

 

Wow. No sh*t. I just read this article no longer than 3 minutes ago dude. The future is now!

Not this one exactly, More of a read but same thing. http://news.yahoo.com/navys-laser-weapon-blasts-bad-215808231.html

 

short range stuff is about all lasers will be good for in naval operations mostly because of humidity. Actually every application I have heard about lasers are used for defensive purposes. But good that they can disable small boats, keeps terrorists from suicide bombing our ships.

 

The Army and Marines may have that "cool" factor, but there's no doubt the navy gets the best toys.

 

I was kinda expecting it to look a little cooler... It is really cool, like conceptual wise... but it looks pretty lame, like an out of place telescope or something...

 

We invented the cannon before we invented the GAU-8 Avenger... give it time.

 

Ah, yes... all the little people who require their amazing death machines to look cool as well as work well. Without you, graphic designers, structural engineers, and modern architects would all go out of business.

 

This makes me wonder what the Ford class aircraft carriers are going to be sporting since the USS Gerald R. Ford is set to leave the construction docks in 2015.

 

keep in mind guys, these lasers are powerful enough to burn through solid objects miles away, what do you think one of these lasers would do to a person? the only thing keeping this from being used as a anti-personal weapon would be ease of target acquisition and firing control (though I imagine a small arms version of this laser is still decades off, and even then only if we start using nuclear power sources for individual use , given modern power resources anyway, never know what might come in the future )

 

The only way that you can have a small arms version even in the coming decades is if you have a support vehicle nearby that allows nearby infantry to induce the power needed to operate the weapon wirelessly. The main two cons are - how big of a generator can you transport on a vehicle and some of the power is lost due to the natural inefficiency of wireless energy transfer.

And if the support vehicle gets taken out, you have essentially very expensive scifi-props in your hands...

If you were smart, you'd put the laser on the vehicle itself.

But even in best conditions, rain, dense fog etc. can drastically reduce the effectiveness of these weapons...
Not to mention reflective body armor / reflective coating on hull...


I'll just bounce your laser back at you


(in reality the trick is that you put the reflective coating under your camouflage)

Lasers are most useful in space and high atmosphere. They are almost useless under water.

The only way to make them work in most conditions within atmosphere is to up the power enough. Eventually, if you have enough power, the loss will start being unnoticeable.

 

For infantry use wouldn't something in the microwave bands be more suitable? With the size and power of the microwave ovens today, repurposing one for military use doesn't seem like to far of a stretch... apart from some documentaries on an crowd control microwave device, I don't got much knowledge in this particular subject, so if anyone can give more details this would be appreciated.

 

Not to mention that I imagine heat losses begin to add up after while. I' in addition to a bulky power supply, the unit would need some sort of cooling system or heat sinks... though of course I'm sure the amount of heat sinks needed would vary directly with the power and maximum range of the laser.

 

I was actually talking with a guy who worked with the military a while back on cooling systems for lasers. He's moved on to other projects now, but he said they usually used a technique involving spraying the laser with some sort of liquid and letting evaporation cool the device. I don't think that would work to well on a hand held device though...

 

Well I know the Ford class catapults are not steam anymore they are magnetic. Lord knows it has enough power for lasers with 2 nuclear reactors (these are new ones that provide 3 times as much power as the ones the nimitz class carries)

 

Urine.

Though you'd need a lot of beer to create all that urine...

 

actually my training in the AF was ground radar, and I can tell you outright that microwaves, while potent, would make a terrible weapon system... sure you can cook a turkey at the feedhorn in fifteen seconds flat (dead serious, any bird dumb enough to sit on the center of the radar dish probably wouldn't live long enough to regret it) the loss of energy is tremendous, quite literally you lose half your output power per FOOT in open air, transmit in the terawatt level and we'd be getting picowatt returns (on the plus side, the half per foot remains true even as you get to the really low power levels, it's only when you get to rediculously small return levels that you lose the ability to receive them at all, which is why the nexrad weather radar works fantastically, most radar systems actually limit the minimum return so they don't pick up small animals, dust particles, what have you, however this is also why most radar's have a finite practical range.)

 

Microwaves can be blocked for a lot less then the cost to make the weapon. I imagine we will have 'gunpowder' infantry weapons until man portable plasma cannon and rail guns come along. The bayonet will always be there, sometimes you just don't have the leisure to reload.

I doubt that shipboard laser has even 1 mile of range.

 

That is all it is, a toy, and probably pork barrel toy at that.

It can DISABLE small boats? a .50cal sniper or Ma Deuce can do more than Disable small boats.
It can shoot down a drone over head? umm what freaking can't shoot down a drone overhead? hand thrown rocks maybe?

One day it might stop a missile or target larger than a drone, but that is in the future the article clearly states.

Wonder how much the damn thing costs? about the price of a destroyer?

It is to be mounted on a gator ship, which means it is being foisted off on the Marines who will have no use for it and could have used something better in it's place.

When the laser can actually do something worthwhile is the time to think of buying it.

 

I think the main selling point is it's cost of ammunition. After installation it only cost 5$ worth of energy to shoot down a drone rather than however much probably-insanely-expensive-because-it's-the-military cost of bullets.

 

oh yes, it only costs 5 dollars and bullets costs thousands each. course they said it was only one dollar but I guess no one was falling for that.