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Amphibious Warship USS Portland Shot Down a Drone with Its New High-Power Laser
- valuearb 6y agoI wonder how long it takes between rounds to recharge the system?
- xeromal 6y agoI wonder if the ship is nuclear powered and if that has any bearing on whether it can support a laser or not.
- nradov 6y agoThe ship is powered by diesel engines, not nuclear. New surface ship classes being designed now will have increased electrical generation capacity to support lasers and railguns.
- pengaru 6y agoDiesel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Portland_(LPD-27) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Portland_(LPD-27) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio-class_amphibious_transport_dock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio-class_amphibious_t...
- wolf550e 6y agoThe only surface ships the US has that are nuclear powered are the supercarriers. Nuclear ships are expensive.
- trynewideas 6y agoall sorts of Project Crossbow news these last couple of months. after what happened with Hathaway at Pac Tech back in the 80s I thought it'd never come around
- uj8efdkjfdshf 6y agoIs that a Real Genius (movie) reference? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Genius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Genius
- PoachedSausage 6y agoAlways, er never, forget to check your references.
- ChuckMcM 6y agoIt always amazes me that the upper limit on these things is to avoid killing satellites.
- renw0rp 6y agoWhat happens if the beam his a person (for example on a boat)? I hope it's not a very painful death.
- MaxLeiter 6y agoAccording to a professor at University of Texas, "It would take about a 1kW laser to boil through someone’s eye to their brain in a reasonable amount of time." This laser is 150-kilowatts. src: https://gizmodo.com/how-many-laser-pointers-would-it-take-to-kill-a-human-1728253506 https://gizmodo.com/how-many-laser-pointers-would-it-take-to...
- scrumbledober 6y agoSo it would be not good for a person to be hit by this laser. Got it.
- Udik 6y agoNext: drones that can detect a laser source and point a mirror back to it.
- nradov 6y agoMirrors are not an effective defense.
- YarickR2 6y agoI wonder about smoke, then )
- ThrowawayR2 6y agoSeems doubtful. Unless the drone is stationary, it would fly right out of it's own smoke cloud. Even with smoke, it's a pretty good bet that the total thickness of smoke particles in the path of the beam is less than that of a coat of paint. No problem for a 150 kW laser to cut through.
- phreeza 6y agoWater vapor might work. It takes ~3MJ to boil a liter of water from room temperature, so if the drone can put water into the laser path somehow, it may slow down the process significantly. Also depends on how long the laser can keep up the firing.
- dntbnmpls 6y agoWhat about smoke and mirrors?
- mcphage 6y agoWhy not?
- ThrowawayR2 6y agoHere's a video of a 500 W laser cutting a set of mirrors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-VlVmBZGI4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-VlVmBZGI4
- winrid 6y agoGetting pretty close to the end of this tech tree. :)
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- aaron695 6y agoLast time Star Wars was a lie, so I'd like to know exactly what has happened this time around, is it in even close to a usable weapon in the field. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/reagans-great-lie-in-the-sky-star-wars-scientists-may-have-deceived-moscow-and-congress-about-the-1463972.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/reagans-great-lie-i...
- yellowapple 6y agoI'd imagine "40 years of laser research" is exactly what has happened this time around. You can already buy lasers off Amazon or Aliexpress that can set things on fire. I'm giving it 10 years tops before we have lethal man-portable laser rifles.
- Jemm 6y agoThe military meaning of amphibious warship is a bit disappointing.
- wolf550e 6y agoIt deploys a battalion of marines in an amphibious landing, it does not itself move on land.