5 ms·
At the current power level, this laser is mainly useful against drones. There is a limit to how much laser power you can shoot through the air. When the thres
by opwieurposiu 5y ago
At the current power level, this laser is mainly useful against drones.
There is a limit to how much laser power you can shoot through the air. When the threshold for breakdown is exceeded, a high density plasma is produced which is opaque to visible and infrared wavelengths and thus absorbs the laser radiation.
The moon does not have this laser power limit, but moving Tel Aviv to the moon would quite expensive and you would lose the mediterranean climate.
- derekp7 5y agoCouldn't you start of with a larger (meter wide) lens and focusing mechanism, so that it narrows down at the target? Then you aren't heating up most of the air between. Also what about high output short pulsed lasers? Couldn't you get much higher output for a brief enough duration that it wouldn't heat up the air?
- Miraste 5y agoSounds like that could be gotten around by using multiple lasers.
- sandworm101 5y agoMultiple beams creates a different problem. Say your beam is 1cm across and you are aiming at a 30cm target. All your energy is in that 1cm. You don't much care where in that 30cm it hits so long as it burns through. But with two lasers, to be effective, each beam needs to hit the same sport on the target. Instead of a 30cm target, laser #2 now has to hit the 1cm beam of the first laser.
- omegant 5y agoThat, or also you get a shotgun effect with different damaged areas in a single target. Increasing the probability of destruction with less powerful lasers.
- nekcihc 5y agoThose lasers do not burn through. #2 does not have to hit exactly the same place as #1 is heating up to boil electronics. No idea, what is meant under lasers in article, but what they were describing could be even be concentrated radio microwaves to fry electronics. There is no need to use concentrated heat to heat up a tea - your target is making a tea, not making a hole in kettle.
- sandworm101 5y agoIf there are electronics, the sort of electronics that run inside missiles arent the sort to be boiled. Its a pretty harsh environment. And with unguided rockets, most of the stuff fired as isreal, there simply arent any electronics.
- weatherlite 5y agoIsrael is very concerned with the guided stuff that Hezbollah backed by Iran has been amassing the last decade.
- nadavwr 5y agoThis could be relevant for UAV's, but this system would defend against missiles that are purely ballistic -- no electronics to fry. I assume that even if you don't burn through a descending missile, merely deforming the nose cone can still cause it to go off course.
- nradov 5y agoThese are unguided rockets used as terror weapons against civilian targets. They're not very accurate in the first place, so even if a defense system deflects a rocket slightly it can still land in a populated area. I suspect what they're actually trying to do is cause enough airframe damage to make the rocket break up in flight.
- andbberger 5y agoThey also need to be in phase
- frupert52 5y agoSet to funk funk
- mrkstu 5y agoAren't there wavelengths available that wouldn't superheat air, but would be absorbed by a missile?
- opwieurposiu 5y agoAt high enough power density, the laser beam's electromagnetic wave rips the electrons right off the atoms of the air, regardless of wavelength. The air does get hot, but heat is not the main issue. The current method of preventing breakdown is to expand and focus the beam with a telescope mirror so the power density near the ground is reduced. See: https://www.rp-photonics.com/laser_induced_breakdown.html https://www.rp-photonics.com/laser_induced_breakdown.html
- simplyaccont 5y agoTHEL was shooting down mortars, shells and rockets at early 2000s
- golergka 5y ago> moving Tel Aviv to the moon would quite expensive and you would lose the mediterranean climate Might make rent just a little bit cheaper though.
- deeviant 5y agoWay, way, way before a laser runs into any sort of hard stop regarding atmospheric effects, it crosses the line into military power and can vaporize anything it wants. Also your statement seems incorrect to me, there is no hard stop for lasers in regards to atmospheric effects. Air is not some sort of invincible laser armor, there is definitely loss, but air does not magically ramp up it's ability to diffuse or diffract laser light without limit. If you shot a terawatt laser at earth from orbit, it would definitely hit earth and obliterate whatever it hits (it would also do horrible things to the air on it's way down that would be like a long linear nuclear bomb). I'm not suggesting one needs anything close to a terawatt laser to have an effective military power laser, either, just giving an example of why the above statement is incorrect.
- AussieWog93 5y ago> but moving Tel Aviv to the moon would quite expensive and you would lose the mediterranean climate On the flip side, you'd be really far away from Iran.
- jazzyjackson 5y agoNow that you mention it, having people able to flee to moon/space pods/mars changes the "Mutually Assured Destruction" math.
- raxxorrax 5y agoPretty sure we quickly would build IPBM and nuke every planet in the solar system just for good measure.
- dillondoyle 5y agoMaybe not so much. Until an outsider in the belt doesn't care about their people and decides to attack with asteroids lol. I miss the expanse.
- raxxorrax 5y agoThey would have a space laser though.